Random Acts run AMOK

Please read my other blog concerning Random Acts event AMOK and my day of prayer.

It's Ms Vee Charles!

As a blogger, when I grow up, I want to be just like her. 

Inspirational is the best word I can use for Ms Vee. I can tell you about how she has all these smart craft ideas for your clothing accessories. I could go on and on about how bright, beautiful, and witty she is. I could speak of how her blogs are professional, informative, and did I mention witty. But, as much as I enjoy all that is beautiful about Ms Vee Charles, the one word that encompasses why I follow Ms Vee around the net that she is inspirational.

Want to follow a health and beauty blog worth your time check out Ms Vee's blogs.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MsVcharles

https://twitter.com/ItsYaGirlVee

http://msvcharles.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/VeeCee80

http://www.msvblogs.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/VeeVlogs

Sharing a funny Gluten-free video

Another Kind of Survival Pantry

The walls are unpainted.

One of the nerve racking problems with having a lot of allergies, mostly with a corn allergy, is that buying packaged foods is a crapshoot. You cannot trust something as simple as a bottle of water, cooking oil that claims to be just the oil listed on the bottle, or frozen strawberries that claim to be just strawberries.

Food is neatly stored.

How can bottled water be a problem? In the bottling process it is not unusual for manufactures to use corn starch as a lubricant in the machinery. Since it is not an actual ingredient of the product it is not listed as an ingredient on the label. For someone with a body as sensitive as mine this means finding out too late that another packaged food item is not safe. It creates not only a situation where I often waste money, but it means pain for as much as three days.

The broken ceiling allowed mice in.

When do I find a packaged food item that works, I, then, find the store is frequently out of that item. To resolve this I took an old coal room, I had been using for a dysfunctional pantry, and made my husband turn it into a decent pantry. I can, now, buy food by the case. 

Wood panel sealed the holes.

 I'd like to conclude this post with a recipe that uses many of the type of items stored in a pantry.

Sweet Potato Soup

Optional and alternatives ingredients are in parentheses.

2 c diced sweet potatoes (butternut squash, pumpkin)

1 large diced apple

(1 Tbs minced onions)

1 stalk mince celery

Water to cover (apple juice can be used in place of an apple and water)

Cook until tender. Turn off and cool for handling. Place a cup or two at a time in the blender and blend until smooth. Return to the pot and cook on medium low heat. Add:

½ tsp Italian seasoning

½ tsp ground rosemary

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

(¼ tsp pepper)

1 c almond milk (any milk or cream, or milk or cream alternative)

Simmer 30 minutes or until thick and creamy. Top with roasted and salted sunflower seed. I like to roast the sunflower seeds myself and add Italian seasoning and salt at the end of the roasting.

Alternative roasted toppings:

pumpkin seeds

almond slices

chopped pecans

sesame seeds

croutons

Serve with Millet Bread.

A sweet alternative, instead of Italian seasoning and salt try cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices and 2 Tbs of your choice of sweetener. Then top with one of these choices:

raisins

sauteed apples

shredded apples

applesauce

shredded carrots

candied nuts

candied seeds

dried cranberries

Serve with:

sweet crackers

in bowels made from pie crust

a couple of sugar cookie
s

Where I've been, and where should I go

Yellow ceiling, orange wall, purple trim

Two weeks ago a bunch of excuses captured me. I have only just escaped.

First some pictures of what I have been doing instead of writing recipes. My daughter's sixteenth birthday is Friday the 28^th.. I've been helping her redecorate her room in her favorite colors. Wild, man.

purple wall, orange trim, green curtains 

green wall, yellow shelf

Husband, Ken and his Takamine 1987

Second, my husband said what I was afraid he would say about the picture of him I posted in my last blog. “That's not my guitar. That's the mandolin.” The truth is I liked the angle of the shot. So here's my hubby and his Takamine.

Finally, I have been giving some serious thought to my writing. I believe I am a writer. I have believed that about myself since I was eleven. In all that time I have been far more raw talent than educated and/or polished skill. My first love has always been to be a homemaker and I have done that for the past 33 years. I haven't regretted it. I have loved it and I am proud of it.

Ken, his banjos, and his dog, Jack  2009

However, my sons are grown and married, with children of their own. My daughter, after years of consideration has chosen to follow my footsteps into homemaking, is doing an academic/ apprenticeship home education. I have the time to be serious about what I want to do with my writing.

I have this cooking blog, but I tend to focus a lot on memoirs. I have a Tumblr where I post mostly stuff connected to the indie band Louden Swain, an occasional thing or two about the TV show Supernatural and I write about bringing peace to politics. It started as a place for my angst about politics, but I've realized that it wasn't going to bring me civil discussions no matter what angle I chose. Finally, have another blog where I post my fan fiction and other things I'm sure I'm not going to sell.

There isn't any doubt that writing is a part of who I am and from looking at my blogs I see that I lean heavily toward story telling. It is time to learn how to make money at it. The question is, and I'm posing this to my readers, do I:

a) Develop this blog into a professional gluten/allergy-free cooking blog,

b) Get serious with what I am learning about script writing in my fan fiction and have a go at being a writer for TV (a really hard business to get into, but I'm having so much fun),

c) Create a professional blog for my little stories, forsaking all other blogs, or

d) Give up blogging in pursuit of freelance writing?

Corn-free 'Cornbread?'

Have you ever watch a show called, Red Green? Click here for a segment.

I love his line. If a woman don't find you handsome, she should at least find you handy.

I have the blessing of a man I find both handsome and handy.

My husband and I had dated about a month when we decided to get married and did so five months later. A relationship moving that fast leaves a lot, let me repeat, a lot of room for getting to know each other after you're married. Which of course is the worst way to get to know each other, but it can also be filled with wonderful surprises.

One of those surprises came about a month after our wedding. We had decided no one would buy anything over thirty dollars, it was big money back then. As we were walking through Sears he spotted a $40 guitar and beg me to let him buy it. I was a bit stunned. Why would he “suddenly” want one of those. It turned out he had taken guitar lesson and he was actually kind of good at it. I didn't regret that purchase. I didn't even regret it when a couple of years later he took two unemployment checks to buy a Takamine, and then played the same song for 10 hours a day over the next week. It wore my patience a bit, but now, he plays classical and finger style. And, one of the classical songs he plays sounds like two guitars and a bell ringing. It like so cool.

No one is perfect

When it came to my cooking his compliments came with one word adjectives, dinner was remarkable, or incredible, filling. He was analytical about food. He would tell me it wasn't right, and then refuse to tell how it was wrong, for fear I would try to fix it. When my daughter and I had to go gluten-free he remained quiet and patient as I learned this new way of cooking. For a person who can eat gluten, gluten-free food just isn't the same, yet, he remains mostly quiet. As far as I'm concerned his patience and kindness in the matter made him a saint.

Not everything can be fixed with duct tape

Five years ago the cost of gluten-free flours seemed to be so high. He immediately bought me a mill attachment for my Kitchenaide. When my Kitchenaide broke, a few months ago, he rigged the mill to allow me to continue to grind, until we bought a new Kitchenaide. It's a fairly simple mount. If you're interested in making one of your own do a little online research, as a number of people have done similar things and posted their how-to.

Making Your home Feel Like a Hug

These are the things that add up and bring to life a richness which goes beyond our troubles. Placing within us the perceptive that together we can do anything. Bless your spouse by remembering the goods things and keep their heart warm by keeping the kitchen warm with home cooking.

One of our family's favorite foods which brought the comfort and warmth of home was cornbread. I posted a recipe here. Since corn is, now, ruled out I make millet bread. While like all mock recipes it is only reminiscent of cornbread. It has the hearty, homeyness cornbread brings to the table.

Millet Bread

Preheat oven to 400

Grease and flour a 9'x9' pan. (either flour will work, rice will provide a grittiness)

1 c brown rice flour

¾ c millet flour

¼ c course ground millet flour (Don't have course ground? Replace it with a 1/4 cup of millet flour.)

1 tsp guar gum

¼ sugar*

1 Tbs baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

¼ c fat (melted palm shortening)

1 c hot milk (quick almond**)

1 slightly beaten egg

Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Place in wet additions and mix until all dry ingredients are moist. Pour into the baking pan. The batter should be thick, maybe even spongy. Gently spread batter to the corners of the pan a spatula. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. You should see cracks in the surface of the bread, just as you would with a good cornbread.

*if you prefer agave or honey, change the recipe to 2 Tbs of sweetener and 2 Tbs of fat.
**Quick Almond milk is 1/3 c almonds ground in the blender. 1 c of water. First grind the almond into a meal, and then with blender on low/whip let blend for 1 minute. For this millet bread recipe use boiling water.

For a Vegan Version

Omit the egg and whip 2Tbs flax seed meal and 1 Tbs starch with your choice of the hot substitute milk.

Gluten/allergy-free Seasonig blends

I love herbs and spices. The smell of them have a way of reminding you of memories, home, or special events. The smell of peppermint reminds me of late September and walks in the woods, were I grew up. The smell of chili and cumin reminds me of my father cooking a large pot of pollo mole (chicken and gravy.) Let's not forget all those wonderful smells of Christmas. Tell me what season pops into your head when you think of Christmas.

While buying an envelope or bottle of season blends can be quite handy making your own fresh blend can provide moments of creativeness, a blend tweaked to your personal needs, and best of all provide one of those many ingredients that make a house a home of warmth.

The following are some of my favorite blends that meet our households allergy-free needs.

Mexican Seasoning

½ c chili powder

2 T cumin powder

4 tsp each:

salt

onion powder

garlic powder

oregano

2 tsp sugar

To blend either run through a coffee grinder for a few seconds. If you don't have a coffee grinder place ingredients in a tightly closed jar. You will need a jar with twice the room than the space the ingredients are taking up. Now, shake well.

For mild flavor, use 1 tablespoon in a pound of ground beef or 2 cups of beans for vegan. 2 tablespoons for a spicier version.

Italian Seasoning

2 tablespoons each:

Basil

Marjoram

Oregano

Parsley

Thyme

Rosemary

Optional 1 teaspoon of chili pepper flakes.*

Run all item through a food possessor or coffee grinder.

* pepper flakes is a part of the original recipe, but I can't have it so I omit it.

Garlic, onion, and black pepper are stand by flavors in cooking. Since I cant have any of them it became a struggle to find a replacement. I came up with:

Colleens Cooking Concoction

4 tsp Allspice powder

2 tsp Celery seed

2 tsp ground Mustard

1 tsp Thyme leaves

Grind in coffee blender until it is a fine powder.

Only 1-2 tsp are needed in your protein choice.

Pumpkin Spice Mix

Mix the following in a jar:

• 1/3 cup ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg or mace
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground allspice.
  

For pumpkin pie, add 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons of spice mix to your other ingredients.

Finally this is my corn-free baking powder recipe.

Baking Powder

2/3 cup starch (arrowroot,or kuzu)

2/3 cup cream of tartar

1/3 cup baking soda

In a large bowl mix all ingredients well. Being well blended is important to the function and the storage of baking powder. Store in a pint jar. Use it as you would prepackaged baking powder.

Gluten-free Cooking 'Scratch' That

When first told to take gluten out of their diet, most people feel like something you see in the cartoons. The ground beneath them is suddenly gone. They're hanging in mid-air waiting to fall. The struggle to cook gluten-free wasn't like that for me. I had already learned about dealing with a dairy-free diet and I had fell head-over-heels in love with heath food, herbs, and the vegan diet.

During the ninety's I worked in a health food store where I learned about the vegan diet. It felt so good. Veganism naturally reduces gluten, corn, and bake goods from the diet, and incorporates a larger variety of foods into the diet. Unable to stay on the diet I continued to have health issues.

So, for me, the bottom didn't fall out. It more at slowly crumbled. It started with starch. Starch, with its high pectin content, is the quickest, easiest, and seemingly best substitute for gluten. Gluten provides quite a bit of the nutrition and the strength to hold a rise in breads and cakes. Starch's lack of nutrition lead me to develop a number of my recipes free of it. Although, cakes, breads, and cookies can be made without starch, pie crusts, crackers, tortillas, and biscuits don't hold together,crisp up or roll out with it's absence.

It was after embracing starch I hit that emptiness. Potato and corn starches have larger starch molecules. The larger the molecules the better it works as a replacement for gluten. They also tend to be cheapest. Well, what do you do if you're allergic to potatoes and corn. First there is tapioca starch. It's too close to the potato family. Crossover allergy problems happen there. So, scratch that. Arrowroot starch is an excellent corn starch substitute. Turns out, it's not unusual for manufactures to cut potato starch into a batch of arrowroot, if they are a little short during bagging. Well, scratch that. Kuzu starch made from the kudzu plant costs 7USD for 3.5 ounces. Are you going to stick a cup of it in your baking? I think not! Scratch that.

With so many foods scratched from my diet, it has been an ability to cook from 'scratch' that has been the biggest help in my struggle to live with, not only a large number of allergies, but to also put together a family meal which considers other family member's allergy concerns. It helps with remembering the ingredient combinations needed to make a cake rise, or to take out out one nutritious food and replace it with another. It makes me brave enough to can my own food, so I can avoid the starch not listed on a food label, but used to make factory canning machines work smoothly without oil.

What has helped you the most in your struggle with gluten/allergy-free cooking?

This weeks highly recommended website for understanding gluten sensitivity.

The World's Ultimate Resource On: Gluten Free Diets, Gluten Free Research, Gluten Free Help, Celiac Disease, and Gluten Free Recipes. Gluten Free Society

10 Tips and Tricks for the insincere Dieter

1. When adding sugar to coffee, while someone present to observe you, try to keep the conversation lively. This will make it harder for them to know just how many spoonfuls of sugar you've added.
   
   
2. The color of fudge blends well with coffee. No one will know if you use it for creamer.
   
   
3. Know how to spin your grammar. If you have been eating doughnuts all day say, 'This is all I've has all day.
   
   
4. Eat small items like marshmallows and doughnut holes in pairs. If you get caught, you can claim, 'this is only the second one' you've had.
   
   
5. When counting calories, don't tell anyone just how high you've counted up to.
   
   
6. Look for hidden fat. You wouldn't want to miss any.
   
   
7. Satisfy you need for a properly dressed salad. Place extra salad dressing at the bottom of the bowl, underneath the salad greens. While at the table in front of friend impress them by barely sprinkling any dressing on top of your salad. Dig deep and enjoy your delicious salad.
   
   
8. Keep a spray bottle of water near by during your effortless exercise routine. 
   When you hear some one coming soak your skin and intensify your activity.
   
   
9. When eating ice cream, eat straight from the box. You can then honestly say, 'I haven't eaten one dish of ice cream.” Include a note of hurt in your voice.
   
   
10. You've only had one spoonful. Just don't tell them you used the biggest spoon you could find.
    
    
11. Never allow dinning alone go to waste. Enjoy all the food your happy 'little' heart desires.
    
    
12. If this blog post caused you any hearty laughter, you've had your exercise for the day. Go take a break.

I think I'm Returning to this blog

After my husband returned to work, it seemed as if, I would never again find the time to write. I am now taking that time, more and more. Just grabbing it and learning how to do it when others are making noise and bugging me. Well, everyone is old enough to take care of themselves while I take a couple of hours for writing fun.

A lot of events have happened in my life in the past two years. I'm, now, a grandmother of 4, 3 boys and 1 girl. I found that I am allergic to corn and that corn is in everything, worst than gluten. Ive been so busy with life and so disappointed by my health issues, I considered abandoning gluten-free blogging all together.

With billions of blogs and millions of them on the subject of gluten-free cooking, I've often defeated myself by thinking why bother. Well, I love to write and I enjoy cooking, and maybe, just maybe, my experiences can help someone out there on the web. So I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna write.

However, it's going to be about more than gluten-free. I have another blog for fan fiction and other writings, mostly Supernatural fan fiction, though. If you're interested it's The Barefoot Bard.

Celiac Disease and the Redheaded Irish

After I read internet buzz claiming the Celiac population is predominately Irish, I have been looking into my own Irish background. I come from a long line of Irish Catholics that may have been originally Celtic Scotsmen.

One theory says, because of fighting with the English, the Irish had smaller portions of land to farm on. The portions of land being too small to grow enough wheat potatoes, which they could grow enough of, became the primary food in their diet. When the potato blight hit they were forced to switch to wheat. Their bodies no longer producing the enzymes to digest gluten they developed Celiac.

The following theory is a fun idea, however very little research shows the Romans never went as far north as Ireland. The Celts were hunter gatherers. Their digestive system was not used to a heavy grain diet. When the Romans (Italians) moved north they introduce wheat, also, as they returned south to Italy they took Celtic women as wives. This accounts for the Celiac disease in the Italians.

I found the idea fascinating, Celiac disease could potentially be traced through history or heritage. While the post were made by predominately Irish and redheaded persons there were also people who were British, Dutch, German and others holding to the idea that it is the fair skinned Europeans which tend to have this disease. Then one person said that her heritage was from the west of Spain and Puerto Rico. Another individual, although she is redheaded, and has green eyes, was asked by her doctor if she was Middle eastern because the Celiac population is predominately Middle eastern.

The issue needed more research than what I found in internet forums. Much of my information comes from abstracts of articles found on PubMed.gov a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

In the Digestive and Liver Disease (an official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and The Italian Study of the Liver) the authors claim it's a global problem.
July 2004; 492-8
The abstract did not provide any percentages, but presented me with a new fact that this disease is a global problem.

This next article from the Turkish Journal Gastroenterology: official journal of Turkish Society of Gastroenterology said:
The prevalence of Celiac disease in the overall sample of Turkish children (1:111 or 0.9%) in this preliminary study is similar to that reported in European and Middle Eastern countries and the United States.
March 2008; 19(1): 14-21

This shows again, with the statement 'similar to that reported in European and Middle Eastern countries and the United States,' that is considered a global disease.

From Coeliac (European spelling) Society of Ireland website:
screening suggests that between 1 in 200 and 1 in 300 people of northern European extraction have Coeliac. It has been believed for a long time that Irish people have a higher than average risk of coeliac disease. Research in Northern Ireland (reported in 1998) suggests that as many as 1 in 122 individuals have coeliac disease.

Association of European Coeliac Societies website
The most important aim of the day is to make coeliac disease better known in Europe. AOECS represent more than 250000 diagnosed coeliacs from the 5 millions (1 % of the population).
In the past coeliac disease was regarded as a very rare childhood condition, but recent studies have shown that it is more common than previously thought. The incidence rate amongst the European population estimated around 1:100, in some countries (Finland, Hungary) even higher. Nowadays more adults are diagnosed than children and many of whom had no health problems during childhood, but develop symptoms only when adults.

I wanted to see a side by side study. I didn't find one, but I did find the following U.S. Information, regarding CD:

Prevalence of Celiac Disease in At-Risk and Not-At Risk Groups in the United States; A Large Multicenter Study
Given the common European ancestry of a large portion of the US population, it is likely that CD in the united States is more common than currently recognized.
See ARCH Med/VOL. 163 Feb.10, 2003 American Medical association. pg. 287

In the New England Journal of Medicine, Article Review, Medical Progress Celiac Disease:
Celiac disease occurs in nearly 1% of the population in many countries.
October 25, 2007; pg 1731; a pdf file of this article can be obtained at http://www.celiac.org

At the end of my studies I find that that Celiac disease, although genetic, is found in one percent of the world population. There isn't any correlation with having red hair, of being Irish, or being of Europeans decent as internet chatter may lead one to believe. This one percent had only one exception, the Arabic people of Saharawi, found in this following article.

Recenti Progressi in Medicina:
In the Arab people of Saharawi, the prevalence of celiac disease in children is so high (more than 5%) that this condition represents a primary health problem.
July- August 2001; 92 97-8): 446-50

I did this research back in September. The amount of information on the subject of Celiac Disease and the number of better written articles concerning the percentage of population with Celiac disease is far greater then the research I've done. This is a disease that is presently receiving a lot of attention. It is worth it for those with Celiac to do regular research in order to keep up with the changes in the worlds understand of this disease.

Gluten-free 'Butter' Cookies

I mustn't linger here, today. I am afraid something else may happen to pull me away before I'm finished. It's been quite a week, but I think I will recover.

I thought about butter cookies for a couple of weeks. They are a traditional Christmas cookies in my husband's family. I have put together a recipe I am very pleased with and want very much to share it. They are light crispy and very much like real cookies.

Without further adieu:

Butter Cookies

Make 3 dozen

Blend together:

3/4 c. brown rice flour

¼ c. tapioca flour

½ millet flour

½ c. almond flour*

1 c. white sugar

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. sea salt

2 tsp. guar gum

Add and mix well:

1 tsp. vanilla

5 Tbs. coconut oil or shortening

5 Tbs. butter or butter substitute

These cookies spread when baking so place small spoonfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Because of the way this dough spreads it is not worth your time to use cookie cutters on it. See the picture to the right? That's a star.

*If you cannot have nuts try flax seed meal instead of almond. Because of flax's thickening tendencies cut the amount of guar gum in half.

Waffles! or maybe not.

I've been thinking about writing a blog post about waffles for some time. I receive a waffle iron for my birthday back in September. I was excited about the idea of doing more than pancakes as a substitute for bread. Sometimes I would open the waffle iron to find a perfect waffle. With the next batch I would open the iron to find not my idea of a good waffle. See picture to the right.

I thought I, finally, came up with a really good waffle recipe, but I g

ot the notion to experiment with the effects of almond meal and flax seed meal on the recipe. This is where I learned to use almond meal or flax seed meal, not both, in a recipe. Also that flax seed meal doesn't need as much guar gum as almond meal. It was like peeking into a treasure box every time I opened the waffle iron was it going to be a crispy waffle or was it going to be a pile of not waffles.

So, although I went to bed Monday evening with good intentions of w

riting about waffles the next morning, I woke up to feeling not up to par. In the end I rested on Tuesday with the intent of writing today. When I woke up this morning all I could think about was all the things I had to do that didn't have anything to do with writing and how that this is my writer's group night and I'm not ready for it. So laundry or blogging or something anything thrown together for my writer's group, which is a bad thing to do, or grocery shopping, which I have put off for a little to long and I don't want to do because of the weather?

I got up determine to at least write to tell you that like most people I'm so busy on the Holiday season that there is no way I'm going to post until maybe the end of January. Then I remembered something Steve Martin said. He said something to the effect that if you want to get creative quit working. That was something he had done a few years back. He had decided to take a break and in the end he had written several plays and a book or two. I know he is right. My most creative thoughts come when I'm too busy to stop and write them down. With my hands deep into dish water I'll think of something I simply must write down. I'll dry my hands, go write it down, return to my dirty dishes, and plunging my hands into the water with the intend of finishing the job, only to think of something else I simply must write down.

So, while I think that I'm too busy to bother to write today or during the months of December and January, somewhere amid working on Lisa's school records, cleaning the house, tree trimming, and baking a Christmas pie my mind will be loaded with ideas for that next great novel I think I'll probably never finish. Or at least I'll write a blog post or two. So who knows maybe I won't post again this month, but then again maybe I won't be able to help myself and go on a blogging frenzy this month. After all, I thought I was only going to write a paragraph, now I have babbled off five.

For today, I'll leave you with two recipes, one is a good waffle recipe, the other is making the most of my not waffles.

Good waffles

makes 4

blend together:

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup millet flour

¼ cup flax seed meal*

½ teaspoon guar gum*

¼ cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt

add in and mix well:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup water

To cook follow the manufactures directions of your waffle iron.

*You may use almond meal instead, just be sure to increase the guar gum from a 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon.

Flipped Flopped Waffles

(as in flip this flopped waffle into something edible)

Makes two patties

Whip well together:

1 egg

2 tablespoons of (your choice) milk

a dash of cinnamon

½ teaspoon vanilla

Break one waffle into little bits and add to egg mixture. The smaller the bits the better the patties work out. Mix until the waffle bits are well coated. Using a large spoon scoop half the batter onto a hot-greased griddle, then scoop the other half onto the griddle.. You may need to flatten and shape the patties a bit. Each side cooks up in about a minute, otherwise brown each side. Serve hot with syrup on top.

A Gluten-Free Website worth Your time

Amid Curtain washing, rearranging to fit a Christmas tree in the living, dusting things, and having my husband throwing a ball at me so he can play fetch with the dog in the house, I'm popping out a quick blog post.

Who would think tofu, sage, thyme, and pumpkin puree would make a fantastic non-dairy Alfredo sauce?

The Gluten-free Gidget that's who. This is the only cheese alternative recipe I have found that did not include yeast. Her Pumpkin Alfredo Pasta with Kale recipe is so delicious and such a wonderful surprise that after cooking up some of it I just had to share it with you. I also thought I would pour some of this sauce over green beans instead of pasta and kale. Is was good, but it didn't taste much like green bean casserole. I think I'll pick her brain on how to make a sauce taste like mushroom soup without the mushrooms.

I didn't tell my husband the sauce was made from pumpkin puree, and tofu, or sage, which he hates. He is my picky eater, yet he thought the sauce was good. He still has no idea what is in the sauce. I think I'll keep it that way, so I don't spoil it for him. My teenage daughter loves the sauce and even thinks the kale and pasta part was good. So I have a new standard to cook with and experiment with.

I love digging around Gluten-free Gidget, or Katrina's blog. It is has great pictures, it well written, many of the vegetarian food dishes will work with my family, and and the food ideas help me move from foods I can't have to to good choices and good substitutes I can have. To check out Gluten-free Gidget's blog and and her fabulous Pumpkin Alfredo Pasta with Kale click here. Check it often, she blogs more frequently than I do.

Gravy

When you sit down to Thanksgiving Dinner and lively conversation you don't want the conversation to be about who the lumps in the gravy look like. Although my family is very fussy about gravy and have left me with the impression that good gravy is hit or miss with me, I have the basic concept of how to turn a liquid into a gravy. For professional instruction go to the website of The Gluten-free Girl and The Chief. This video is well worth your time and much better instruction then I have here. I'm not a professional; I'm a mom and a grandmother.

These gravy recipes will only say flour, not what kind, because the choice is up to you. To make a more informed decision I will share what I have learned about starches and flours.

Starches
Any recipe that says corn starch can be substituted with arrowroot without any difference to the recipe.

Potato flour
When I first started cooking gluten-free I learned something about potato flour I haven't seen mentioned on blogs, websites, or in books that left me frustrated. If you add a little water to it and stir the starch thickens and keeps on thickening until you can't work with it and adding a little more water doesn't help either, because it keeps on thickening. Yet, the taste is a just right for a gravy that will be going on potatoes. Below I will teach you how to work it into a gravy with my I'm in a hurry and don't tend to follow recipes method.

Brown Rice flour
The flavor of rice flour is mild enough to not overpower the flavor of sauces and gravies. In the right amount it makes a good gravy. Add enough and it makes gravy flavored cream of rice.

Garbanzo bean flour
Garbanzo bean flour is a great way to add a little more protein to you meal. It thickens just as any other flour, but you'll need to cook it 5 minutes instead of 2 to make it digestible. It does impart a flavor I prefer for soups and white sauces.

Roux
Roux is equal parts melted butter with flour cooked in. Don't use potato flour for the above mentioned lumping problem. Roux is a good choice if your main course meat doesn't provide much juice and you'll be using a store bought broth. The butter will add flavor.

To make 2 cups of gravy start with 3 tablespoons of butter. I use a butter substitute, Smart balance Light, which doesn't melt well. To solve this problem I use 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of my butter substitute.

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan on low heat. When melted stir in 3 tablespoons of flour. Once the butter is soaked into all the flour you should have a past. Keep stirring as you cook it for a couple of minutes. From this point it is actually the same instructions as with the slurry. Pour your roux in small amounts into 2 cup of boiling broth. Be sure to include any of the browned juices that the meat has provided. Bring it back to a boil before deciding if your gravy needs more roux.

3 Tbs. melted butter or substitute
3 Tbs. flour

Slurry
This is simply equal amounts of starch and cold water. Use cold water because warm water will cause the pectin in the starch to gel making a lump, not a slurry. No need to really measure, but I use a heaping tablespoons of starch and then add water until I have a thin paste.

Bring the meat juices to a boil. You will need to stir the slurry before you can pour it, because the starch has the tendency to settle. Pour the slurry in small amounts, bring the broth back to a boil before deciding if your gravy needs more of the slurry. The slurry/starch remember has a tendency to settle to the bottom, this will turn into one big lump if you don't keep stirring, using a whisk.

1 heaping Tbs. starch
1 Tbs. cold water, more or less

Quick “I'm in a hurry and don't tend to follow recipes closely” gravy

Warning this method has a higher likelihood of coming out lumpy.

If you have plenty of broth from the meat to work with sprinkle small amounts of the flour, lightly dusting the surface of the boiling broth. Again the most important part of a non-lumpy gravy is to keep stirring it in with a whip. After you sprinkle and stir in about a tablespoon worth stop adding flour, give it a moment check it's thickness. When it reaches your desired thickness turn down the heat and cook on simmer for a couple of minutes, so your gravy doesn't taste like raw flour.

About 3 tablespoons of flour to 2 cups of broth works for me.









Most of the pictures over the past few days have been of my second born son Jared age 18 months. He had wanted thanksgiving dinner so much he pulled the large wooden high chair about 15 feet from the pantry area to the table. Jared is now 24 and has 2 little boys of his own to feed.

Ginger Cookies

It's Thanksgiving, for goodness sakes, don't keep the cookies from the kids. Jared is about a year old in these pictures. He decided he had to have cookies. Despite his best efforts he just couldn't reach them. After a lot of trying, and some pushing and pulling on me, I brought them down to his level.

It seems like cookies were the first thing I set my eyes on when I walked in the door of Grandma's warm and cozy home. Her home was always full of things that had been there forever or was homemade, especially the food.

Grandma couldn't have managed a Thanksgiving feast without a buffet. Otherwise, where would she keep the cookies, four kinds of pie, a cake, the three tiered tray full of things like green olives, black olives, sweet pickles, baby dills, and cream cheese stuffed celery.

Remember the Thanksgiving it snowed so much you could make a snowman in the front yard. I do and I did. In 1974, my cousin Debbie and I went out, and amid the kids throwing snowballs and pulling sleds, we built a pleasant, little four foot, very traditional snowman.

It's been so chilly I'm surprised we don't have snow on the ground, this year. Not that I want snow. Snow is pretty to look at, but I hate the cold and the way it can permeate to the bone. I do, however, have an answer to the cold, coffee and ginger cookies.

I wish they were ginger snaps, but I can't, yet, get that hard snap in my cookies. In this case I'm considering on increasing the fat and lowering the baking powder amounts.

I find their flavor a bit milder than ginger snaps and I will increase the ginger and molasses the next time I bake some. But here is what I did this time:

Ginger Cookies

Makes 3 dozen small cookies

Preheat oven to 375°

Grind 10 pieces of Reed's crystallized ginger chews in a mini chopper or food processor until it is the consistency of a meal. Place in mixing bowl, then mix in:

3/4 c. rice flour

½ c. millet flour

½ c. almond meal *

2 tsp. guar gum

½ tsp. baking power

½ tsp. salt

1 Tbs. ground ginger

½ tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg (optional)

¼ tsp. ground cloves

1 c. brown sugar

2 tsp. lemon zest

Add to this mixture:

1 egg

1Tbs. molasses

Cut in:

1 Tbs. Coconut oil*

2 Tbs. shortening

2 Tbs. smart balance light

Roll dough into small balls, place on greased cookie sheet, and flatten into cookie shapes.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until browned.

* I f you can't have nuts exchange the almond for flax seed meal and the coconut oil for shortening.

Cranberry Bread

1 ¾ cups brown rice flour
¼ cup millet flour
1 package unflavored gelatin
2 tsp gar gum
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking power
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp. butter or any fat of your choice (may be omitted)
1 well-beaten egg
1 ½ cups frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°. In a bowl mix together dry ingredients. Stir in orange Juice, butter, and egg.
Mix until well blended. Stir in cranberries. Turn into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes; remove from pan.

Cranberry-raisin Muffins

1¼ cup rice flour
¼ cup millet flour
¼ almond or flax meal
1 teaspoon Guar gum or Xanthan gum
3 teaspoons baking power
½ teaspoon salt
¼ more or less brown sugar
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup dried cranberry
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons Smart balance light or butter
1 egg or egg substitute1 cup milk of your choice

To make muffins, combine dry ingredients, and then mix in wet ingredients until just combined and no longer dry. Grease and flour a muffin tin and fill the cups full. Gluten free does not rise like glutenous, so you needn't worry about it overflowing here. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (give or take 5 minutes).

Thanksgiving Menu

If your cooking Thanksgiving dinner chances are you're pulling up an extra chair.(Son Jared age 2 here, now has his own one little ones)

Let's check and see if our Menu is in order. (Me at age 35)

Turkey

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Maple Mashed Sweet potatoes

Stuffing (store bought gluten variety baked in a dish separate from the turkey)

Corn

Green beans (Might make a creamed casserole)

Salad

Rolls (store bought treat for those who can have gluten, bake while mashing potatoes and making gravy.)

Cranberry Bread (bake on Tuesday, do most of the cleaning)

Apple pie (Bake pies on Wednesday)

Pumpkin pie (Jared age 4, he has always loved food)

Cinnamon sugar Cookies (Bake cookies on Monday, begin cleaning)

Ginger Snaps

Cranberry- Raisin muffins (Bake on Tuesday for snaking.)

Now let's get cooking. The underlined food items above are links to some gluten-free recipes.

Don't worry yourself thin over those critiques. (Me mid-twenties)

They're simply too fussy to please anyway. Just do your best and know that you are blessed. (Son, K. C., age 14 months, who is now 30 years old.)

Tomorrow I hope to post my recipes for ginger snaps, pie recipes, and tips on making gluten-free gravy.

Remember the sights sounds, and smells of Autumn?

Apples, pumpkins and candy,
pies, cookies, and haunted houses,
cider, donuts, and a hayride,
Halloween, Harvest Feasts, and Thanksgiving Day,
children running, laughing and jumping,
crisp leaves on crisp days,
the list could go on.



As a little girl my best friend Mary Ann and I would rake leaves into rows, making corners, and going around until we had a series of boxes representing the walls of a house. After we made a quick trip to the corner store for candy we played house. We lived in a neighborhood filled with kids and in great hordes, we went tricker-or-treating. Each coming home with a grocery sack of candy.

It must have been as a baby when I fell in love with the Fall Season, because I can't remember a time when I didn't love autumn. It has the most beautiful mix of warm colors with cool days, with crisp leaves to shuffle your feet through.

Crisp is the word that keeps coming to my mind. It is one of my trouble spots with gluten-free cooking. I'm pleased with my cookies, but they still don't have the crunch I'm looking for, I believe I have, however, learned a few tricks.
Starch has the ability to provide flexibility during the dough stage of a bake good and adds a bit of crispiness in the finished product.
Almond meal can make a cake product more tender, yet help things like cookies, pies, waffles, and fruit crisps have a melt in the mouth flavor and a satisfying crunch.
Flax seed meal is nearly as good as almond meal, but beware to use one or the other in most cases. Using both can make bake goods stick in their pan.
Coconut oil works better than palm shortening when you are looking for a flaky, tasty, crispy, crunch.
Palm shortening works better than Smart Balance Light, when looking for crunch but it won't add the buttery flavor.
Water will make a crispier waffle than milk ever will.
With these facts all lined up I have created a fruit crisp that surprises even me. Even better, I have my Hubby's seal of approval. Give it a try and let me know how the recipe worked for you.

Fruit Crisp
Melt :
2T Smart Balance Light
2T Coconut oil

mix with it

¾ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum
¾ tsp. cinnamon
½ c. rice flour
¼ c. millet
¾ c. almond meal or flax seed meal
2 Tbs. cup tapioca flour or potato starch
¼ c. quinoa flakes or oatmeal
1/4 tsp. each baking powder, salt, and baking soda

Sprinkle this over sliced fruit in a 9x9 cake pan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350°.

For apple
peel, core and slice 6 medium apples, mix in ½ Tbs. Lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon of arrowroot starch.

For peaches
use 3 15 oz. Cans of peaches in juice. Drain off the juice. If desired add a ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 Tablespoon or 2 of sugar.