Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Monday, May 26, 2008
Gluten Free For Dummies
On our last trip to Kentucky I popped in to the bookstore and there sitting on the cooking shelf was this little book Gluten Free Cooking For Dummies. I attempted to read it on the way home but it wasn't working. I was coming down with something and all my body wanted to do was sleep. So that's what I did.
When I finally sat down to read, yes it's a cookbook but there are lots of things to read before hand, I was amazed. Now I do not agree with her total thinking. I don't think gluten free is the way to be for the whole earth. I'm a firm believer in moderation unless you can't have it to begin with. I don't think if you are celiac you should moderate your gluten intake, nope sorry not going there.
The book is full of great information for the beginner. It explains the dangers of contamination without making you go out and buy a whole new kitchen. I have read messages boards where people do not let others cook in their "gluten free" pans. The truth of the matter is as long as you clean it good, you have washed away any gluten. She only suggests having seperate toasters, (I have a four sliced toaster two for my gluten bread and two for his non gluten), colander, and pasta spork (ok I don't know if that's the real name but it's what I call it). She also suggests that if you do not wash your cast iron in soap and water to have seperate for that. Other than that as long as you clean to the point you can eat out of the pan you can use it to cook gluten free in.
Now that school is out I plan on cooking more from scratch. I had attempted this once last summer and after a failure that left me in tears I gave up on it. I have spent the last year reasearching, reading, learning, and pretty much being obsessed with gluten free baking and cooking that I feel like I can try it again. Wish me luck! I'll post the results with pictures.
When I finally sat down to read, yes it's a cookbook but there are lots of things to read before hand, I was amazed. Now I do not agree with her total thinking. I don't think gluten free is the way to be for the whole earth. I'm a firm believer in moderation unless you can't have it to begin with. I don't think if you are celiac you should moderate your gluten intake, nope sorry not going there.
The book is full of great information for the beginner. It explains the dangers of contamination without making you go out and buy a whole new kitchen. I have read messages boards where people do not let others cook in their "gluten free" pans. The truth of the matter is as long as you clean it good, you have washed away any gluten. She only suggests having seperate toasters, (I have a four sliced toaster two for my gluten bread and two for his non gluten), colander, and pasta spork (ok I don't know if that's the real name but it's what I call it). She also suggests that if you do not wash your cast iron in soap and water to have seperate for that. Other than that as long as you clean to the point you can eat out of the pan you can use it to cook gluten free in.
Now that school is out I plan on cooking more from scratch. I had attempted this once last summer and after a failure that left me in tears I gave up on it. I have spent the last year reasearching, reading, learning, and pretty much being obsessed with gluten free baking and cooking that I feel like I can try it again. Wish me luck! I'll post the results with pictures.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Yahoo Group
So my husband and I are traveling to Elizabethtown, KY, Fort Knox in a few weeks for his son's graduation from Cav Scout School. Normally when traveling we stick to places we know, large chains where nothing changes from place to place. It's in the Clan-Thompson guide or I have contacted for a list.
Here's the thing though, there's not a whole big group of them. They get boring after awhile. But that is life, I enjoy eating out and so does my husband so we eat at the places that are available.
The hitch in our getty up is we are traveling through St. Louis. I know doesn't sound like that big of a deal. Find one of your known restaurants and eat there. The thing is two of my best friends from college live there. I haven't seen them since we all left and I've never met their wives or their children. They haven't met Paul or his son. We all want to eat together and not one of our regular places. They want to show us their city and I want to eat food from their city.
The sweet people they are offered to do all the footwork for us, research places ect. I just couldn't do that to them. It's a lot of work. Well I started googling, researching myself. I came across yahoo group that is in that area for celiacs. Complete with a list of restaurants. I sent it off to them, they will mark it, send it back and life will be good.
End of the story? NOOOOOO. Oh my gosh not only do they have that nice little bit of information for locals and those traveling they have a host of other information. Did you know you that you can take the difference in the special food from the regular food off of your taxes? I sure didn't. It's there including all the steps you have to take to do it.
You have to join their group, which takes a yahoo account. I think most people have those and if not it only takes a couple of minutes to set one up. It's worth the information available. They have some great articles up too. Including one about Washington University researching gluten free wheat. WOOO HOOO!!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/stlouisalerts/
Here's the thing though, there's not a whole big group of them. They get boring after awhile. But that is life, I enjoy eating out and so does my husband so we eat at the places that are available.
The hitch in our getty up is we are traveling through St. Louis. I know doesn't sound like that big of a deal. Find one of your known restaurants and eat there. The thing is two of my best friends from college live there. I haven't seen them since we all left and I've never met their wives or their children. They haven't met Paul or his son. We all want to eat together and not one of our regular places. They want to show us their city and I want to eat food from their city.
The sweet people they are offered to do all the footwork for us, research places ect. I just couldn't do that to them. It's a lot of work. Well I started googling, researching myself. I came across yahoo group that is in that area for celiacs. Complete with a list of restaurants. I sent it off to them, they will mark it, send it back and life will be good.
End of the story? NOOOOOO. Oh my gosh not only do they have that nice little bit of information for locals and those traveling they have a host of other information. Did you know you that you can take the difference in the special food from the regular food off of your taxes? I sure didn't. It's there including all the steps you have to take to do it.
You have to join their group, which takes a yahoo account. I think most people have those and if not it only takes a couple of minutes to set one up. It's worth the information available. They have some great articles up too. Including one about Washington University researching gluten free wheat. WOOO HOOO!!
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/stlouisalerts/
Monday, April 21, 2008
Bob's Red Mill Waffle and Biscuit Mix - Again
Ok so this time I used it to make biscuits. I wasn't that impressed as a person who can have gluten. Hubby on the other hand thought they were pretty good. You have to roll them out pretty thick because they don't raise. They did brown, but I sprayed them pretty heavy with a gluten free spray. They had a baking powder tang to them. I used them to pour chicken gravy over. We always called that chicken pot pie growing up but I know most people don't. If I cut them in half, poured the gravy on them and then let them sit for a few minutes it wasn't bad. Again the gluten free person in the house liked them, it was the gluten person that didn't.
Epicourious Does Gluten Free
I haven't tried any of the recipes yet. Life has been busy, son getting leave time at Fort Knox, (traveling with a celiac a whole new experience), flu, allergies, you name it seems like it has hit this house in the last two months. Now that we are healthy again I hope to hit this again. I've got a few ideas that I'm batting around for some gluten free stuff.
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/howtocook/primers/glutenfreerecipes_intro?mbid=rfv1w032608
Check this out, epicurious is a pretty big gourmet cooking site. They are connected to a lot of magizines. It makes me happy they are taking it seriously.
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/howtocook/primers/glutenfreerecipes_intro?mbid=rfv1w032608
Check this out, epicurious is a pretty big gourmet cooking site. They are connected to a lot of magizines. It makes me happy they are taking it seriously.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Bob's Red Mill Wheat Free Biscuit & Baking Mix
I had purchased a package of this a few weeks ago while I was at a health food store. After listening to Paul whine about how he wanted waffles I finally broke down the other night and made some. This mix reminds me a lot of Bisquick. I haven't made biscuits with it yet but the texture of the product and ingredient list is very similar.
Now about the waffles. I followed the directions on the package for pancakes because it said that the same could be used for waffles. The one thing I didn't do was add all the water. It called for 2 cups and that just sounded like a lot for no more "flour" than I had. I ended up only adding 1 and 1/3 cups of water until I got the consistancy I wanted. I then cooked them in the waffle iron just like any other waffles.
I guess I'll get the bad out of the way first. They didn't brown well. I sprayed the waffle iron but still didn't get any browning to speak of. Also I was using a teflon coated, non-stick iron and still had to spray it. I didn't on one batch and they kind of stuck. Also once they got cool they took on an eggy taste. I'm not sure why but they did. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't a taste that you usually get with waffles.
The good. THEY TASTED LIKE REAL WAFFLES! As someone who doesn't HAVE to eat gluten free foods, I usually turn my nose up and eat the real stuff. The had the same texture as a Bisquick waffle, they tasted very similar and they absorbed the butter and syrup as wheat waffle would.
I enjoyed this product and would recommend it for a waffle or pancake mix. I'll have to let you know how it works for biscuits and quick breads in another post, after I try it of course.
WHERE TO PURCHASE:
Of course you can check you local supermarkets and health food stores. I've seen Bob's products becoming more popular on the supermarket shelves lately.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ED9L3K Amazon.com, they are even offering a subscription service for gluten free products right now. $16.00 for 4 packages
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Wheat-Free-Biscuit-Baking-Mix-24oz_W0QQitemZ330212852018QQcmdZViewItem#ShippingPayment Ebay - With shipping it looked about the same price as Amazon. I would use caution when buying food stuffs from Ebay.
http://www.suzannes.com/boredmiwhbia.html Suzannes.com $4.31 each.
Now about the waffles. I followed the directions on the package for pancakes because it said that the same could be used for waffles. The one thing I didn't do was add all the water. It called for 2 cups and that just sounded like a lot for no more "flour" than I had. I ended up only adding 1 and 1/3 cups of water until I got the consistancy I wanted. I then cooked them in the waffle iron just like any other waffles.
I guess I'll get the bad out of the way first. They didn't brown well. I sprayed the waffle iron but still didn't get any browning to speak of. Also I was using a teflon coated, non-stick iron and still had to spray it. I didn't on one batch and they kind of stuck. Also once they got cool they took on an eggy taste. I'm not sure why but they did. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't a taste that you usually get with waffles.
The good. THEY TASTED LIKE REAL WAFFLES! As someone who doesn't HAVE to eat gluten free foods, I usually turn my nose up and eat the real stuff. The had the same texture as a Bisquick waffle, they tasted very similar and they absorbed the butter and syrup as wheat waffle would.
I enjoyed this product and would recommend it for a waffle or pancake mix. I'll have to let you know how it works for biscuits and quick breads in another post, after I try it of course.
WHERE TO PURCHASE:
Of course you can check you local supermarkets and health food stores. I've seen Bob's products becoming more popular on the supermarket shelves lately.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ED9L3K Amazon.com, they are even offering a subscription service for gluten free products right now. $16.00 for 4 packages
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Wheat-Free-Biscuit-Baking-Mix-24oz_W0QQitemZ330212852018QQcmdZViewItem#ShippingPayment Ebay - With shipping it looked about the same price as Amazon. I would use caution when buying food stuffs from Ebay.
http://www.suzannes.com/boredmiwhbia.html Suzannes.com $4.31 each.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Ruby Tuesday's
Installment one of a serious of resturants that offer gluten free food.
The first resturant that we tried once he went on back on his gluten free diet was Ruby Tuesday's. I had emailed them, no information on their website, and by the next morning had an email back outlining their foods that were safe to eat. I was impressed with their quickness, since they were one of just a few that emailed me back.
So that weekend, while on our Saturday shopping excursion we stopped in for lunch. Paul had eaten their buffolo burger about a year before and he really liked it. So he ordered it without a bun and mashed potatoes instead of fries. He's ordered that at other places and it wasn't attractive. When his plate came out it looked so nice. They made it a nice presentation. It looked like a steak and mashed pototoes instead of a hamburger without a bun.
The first resturant that we tried once he went on back on his gluten free diet was Ruby Tuesday's. I had emailed them, no information on their website, and by the next morning had an email back outlining their foods that were safe to eat. I was impressed with their quickness, since they were one of just a few that emailed me back.
So that weekend, while on our Saturday shopping excursion we stopped in for lunch. Paul had eaten their buffolo burger about a year before and he really liked it. So he ordered it without a bun and mashed potatoes instead of fries. He's ordered that at other places and it wasn't attractive. When his plate came out it looked so nice. They made it a nice presentation. It looked like a steak and mashed pototoes instead of a hamburger without a bun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
