Dec 1st Edition of the Gluten Free Lifestyle Blog Carnival

Welcome to the December 1, 2009 edition of the gluten free lifestyle blog carnival...posted one day early b/c I'll be out of the office yet again tomorrow. Sorry for my lengthy absence! I'm coming up for air to publish this wonderful collection of recipes, product reviews and tips.

Product Reviews

Ginger Carter Miller presents They'll Never Know...A GF Cake with an Edge! posted at Ging Recommends!.

Recipes

Kim, The Food Allergy Coach presents Corn Bread: Straight Up & As a Stuffing posted at The Food Allergy Coach, saying "Two great gluten free recipes courtesy of my mom!"

Ginger Carter Miller presents A delicious turkey pot pie recipe from Whole Foods GF Chef Lee Tobin. posted at Ging Recommends!.

Tamara Duker presents Pão de Queijo (and other reasons to meet your Hispanic Roots) posted at What I'm Eating Now, saying, "If you like Mexican food for its gluten-free corn tortillas, you'll love learning about the delicioso GF goodies you can make with Hispanic root vegetables...including this beyond-easy recipe for Brazilian Cheese Buns."

Amy Green @ Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free presents Homemade Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Taco Seasoning posted at Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free, saying, "A simple and frugal taco seasoning - tastes so much better than anything out of a packet and you get creative license over the final outcome."

Annette Berlin presents Orange Smoothie posted at Craft Stew, saying, "This recipe came from Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet by Nava Atlas."

Tips

Nancy Lapid presents Tips for eating out gluten free. posted at About.com Celiac Disease.

Linda Simon presents X is for Xanthan posted at Kitchen Therapy, saying, "Where and when to use xanthan to convert wheat bakery to gluten free treats."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the gluten free lifestyle blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Email me if you would like to host! We'll be skipping January 1st due to the holiday craze, but please check out the Feb 1st edition, which will be hosted by Shirley at Gluten Free Easily.

Gifts of Good Taste - Holiday Cordials & Vanilla Extract

This week's Holiday Food Festival theme is Gifts of Good Taste, which is hosted by Phoebe at Cents to Get Debt Free. I love this theme, as I strive to make edible gifts each year. I think it's so fun! I am famous for my homemade fudge in many varieties and peppermint bark. I've also experimented with making candied popcorn. Last year, we made Holiday Cordials, which are always a big hit. I've had the recipe for years - I copied it out of a friend's cookbook, but have no idea which one.

Please forgive the lack of pictures. My husband used the camera and changed the settings, so my pictures are not coming out clear. I can't figure out how to undo it, so the pictures will have to wait until later.

Ingredients (makes about 6 C)

• 1 lb mixed dried fruit


• 1 bottle (750 ml or 3.5 C) dry white wine


• 1 C brandy


• 2 C sugar

Directions

1. Place fruit in a glass, ceramic, or stainless steal container. Stir in wine, brandy, and sugar until well blended. Cover tightly and let stand at room temperature for at least 1 week to allow flavors to develop. Stir occasionally for the first few days to dissolve sugar.


2. To give, pack in small jars. On the gift tag, note that the liquor is for sipping; or the cordial is delicious poured over ice cream or pound cake. After about 6 weeks, the fruit should be removed or it may become too soft. The cordial alone keeps indefinitely.

This year, we will be gifting homemade vanilla extract. It's so easy and makes a great gift for the bakers in your life!



Ingredients

• 5 vanilla beans (look for good quality beans online - you'll get a great price)


• 1 750 ml bottle of vodka

Directions

1. Split beans in half.


2. Pour a small amount of the vodka out of the bottle.


3. Fit all beans into the bottle.


4. Shake every couple of weeks. In about 2 months, it's ready for prime time!
   

I will be pouring the extract into pretty, small bottles decorated with ribbon. I will put 1/2 bean in each bottle and add vodka to make sure each one is full. The tag will say that, as you use the extract, just add more vodka and it will regenerate! Cool, huh?

Happy Holidays!

Tapioca Apple Pudding

Sorry for my absence over the last week. I've been under the weather, and we had a death in the family. I'm also temporarily working on a new project that takes me away from the office 3 days per week...this likely means that my posts will be fewer over the next couple of months.

This recipe is something I discovered as I continue to search for rotation diet-friendly things to eat. It's warm and comforting and fills the house with a wonderful aroma. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients (makes 2 large servings):

• 1/2 C quick cooking tapioca cooked according to package instructions
• 2 T honey or 4 t agave
• pinch of salt
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 C milk (whatever kind you can tolerate)
• 1/4 t nutmeg
• 2 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced

Directions

1. Oil 2 large ramekins and preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix first 6 ingredients together.
3. Arrange sliced apples in each ramekin.
4. Pour tapioca mixture evenly over each.
5. Bake for about 40 - 45 minutes. The apples will rise to the top!

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Mondays and What Can I Eat That's Gluten Free. Check out these great recipe roundups!

Enjoy!

Interview with Food Allergy Expert, Susan Engle, MOE, RD, LD

The question I am asked most often is "do you know any medical professionals that actually 'get it' (food allergies, celiac, etc)???" They are a rare find, aren't they? So I asked my colleague, Susan Engle of Nutrition Matters, to answer a few key questions. I've gotten to know Susan quite well. She was a guest speaker at the Going Gluten Free series put on by Food Sensitivity Resources. Susan is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to food allergies, intolerance, and sensitivities and enjoys helping this special population.

1. How did you become interested in the field of nutrition? I was always interested in health promotion and disease prevention. I started my professional career as a dental hygienist and took a nutrition course during my training for that. As soon as I graduated and started working I took another course in human nutrition. Eventually I went back to school to earn my degree in nutritional sciences and become a registered dietitian. I love food and eating and enjoy helping others discover delicious foods that nourish them and keep them healthy. (You can read more about Susan's background here.)

2. What has been your experience treating patients with food allergies, intolerance, sensitivities, and celiac disease? This is one of the most rewarding aspects of my practice as a registered dietitian and nutritionist. Often when I work with these patients and help them discover the foods they are reacting to they come back to me with big smiles and gifts of thanks. They are so thankful to be able to eat without painful consequences. People with food allergies/sensitivities/intolerances need to search for dietitians/nutritionists who specialize in this area so they can get good help. Unfortunately many traditionally trained medical personnel are not specialists in this area and don't know how to help.

3. What services to you offer to help people who have dietary restrictions? It depends on what is going on for them. For people who come to me with a new diagnosis of Celiac disease or single or even multiple food allergies, I can help them with meal planning to ensure a nutritionally adequate diet. I enjoy taking people through their local grocery store and helping them find foods they can eat safely. For people who come to me sure that something they eat is causing them health problems but they can't figure out what food or foods is causing the problem - I can help sleuth this out. If it is just one ingredient in foods, fructose or lectins for example, these are found in multiple foods. Most people are not aware of the foods that contain fructose or lectins. Because I am familiar with this, I can look at a 2 week food and symptom diary and identify the food(s) that are causing the problem. My specialty is food and nutrition so I can help people find tasty foods that meet their food allergy/sensitivity needs. For example, we will talk about how to choose foods when out of the home, either on the run or at a restaurant. We talk about how to choose a variety of foods in order to provide the most nutrition for the diet. I make suggestions for what kind of vitamin and mineral supplements to take. For people who are still experiencing symptoms after a few months on the diet, I can help them problem solve what else might be going on - small bowel bacterial overgrowth? or other food allergies/sensitivities? lactose or fructose intolerance? inadvertent gluten exposure? Some people need help gaining healthy weight back, I can help with this. Reducing cross-contamination in the kitchen if there are other family members who consume gluten. These are a few of the services I can provide to people with food allergies/sensitivities.

4. How do you keep up with the latest research regarding food allergies/intolerance/sensitivities/celiac? I attend national conferences provided by nationally and internationally recognized experts on a regular basis. I teach continuing education courses to health professionals on these topics and so it is essential that I keep up to date with new research.

5. What are your thoughts about the current research going on in this field? It is very exciting. They are working on "curing" anaphylactic allergies, finding ways for people with celiac disease to tolerate small to moderate amounts of gluten, and learning more about food sensitivities and how to diagnose and treat them. I believe they will accomplish these goals and more given time.

6. What is the most useful advice you have for people new to dietary restrictions due to food allergy, intolerance, and/or sensitivities? Find out about the foods you CAN eat safely, search them out and enjoy them. Pay more attention to these foods than to the ones you need to avoid. Eating should be pleasurable even if you need to avoid some foods. Meet with a registered dietitian to ensure you are meeting your nutrient needs whenever you have to cut out a whole food group or a major source of an important nutrient (ex: milk products are our best source of calcium and Vitamin D).

To contact Susan, please click here.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Oonagh Williams, award-winning chef, culinary instructor, and expert in all things gluten and allergen free. Oonagh has a bunch of delicious looking recipes on her website, so I thought I would give one a try. She has a pumpkin roll listed. When I told her that I would be adapting it to gluten free, she sent me the following recipe.

I wanted to pick a dessert from Oonagh's collection in honor of the Holiday Food Festival, which kicks off today. Stop by Hoosier Homemade to check out the dessert edition!

Oonagh's Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll/Layer Cake

Ingredients for cake

• 2/3 c 100% pumpkin from a can (not pumpkin pie filling). Don’t increase amount of pumpkin, cake won’t work.
• 3 large or 2 extra large eggs
• 1 c sugar (I used honey)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking powder and pinch of salt
• ½ tsp xanthan gum
• 1+1/2 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice
  
• ¾ c gf flour blend

Ingredients for Filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese softened -lite is fine but gives a softer texture.
• 1 c powdered sugar (I used honey + cornstarch)
  
• 4 tbsp butter softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp bourbon - if you can tolerate it, otherwise rum or brandy or none
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• You can also use only ½ c powdered sugar and add 1 cup cool whip.
  

Directions

1. Mix filling ingredients together with a beater until smooth.
2. Toast ¼ c chopped pecans in 350° oven for 10 minutes (optional - for cake topping)
3. Line 10 x 15” jelly roll pan with parchment paper or foil. Grease foil or paper.
4. Mix together pumpkin, eggs, vanilla and sugar until well blended.
5. Add baking powder, xanthan gum, spice and flour and mix well.
6. Pour onto lined jelly roll pan, gently spread out, it might seem as if you don’t have enough batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes until well risen (but it won’t be very high), springy but still soft to the touch.
7. Remove cake from oven, sprinkle with sugar, place cooling rack topped with parchment paper on top of sugar sprinkled cake and turn it upside down. Carefully remove paper or foil from base of cake and roll up pumpkin roll with sugar sprinkled parchment paper caught inside. Or cut cake into 2 or 3 sections to create long thin pieces or short fat pieces and leave flat to cool.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
9. Unroll, retain about ¼ c filling, and spread remainder of filling on cake.
   
10. Re-roll or stack. Don’t worry if the cake has cracked. When you drizzle remainder of filling on top, it will hide cracks.
    
11. Thin ¼ c of filling slightly with cream and drizzle on top of roll. Sprinkle with toasted pecans and refrigerate.
    

For layer cake, spread flat pieces of cake with cream cheese filling, stack, spread more on top and sprinkle with toasted pecans or chopped spiced pecans.






Different filling:

• ¾ c heavy or whipping cream
• 8 oz tub of Mascarpone cheese
• ¼ c powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp liqueur, rum, brandy to taste

Directions

1. Whisk cream, sugar, vanilla and alcohol until cream forms soft peaks.
   
2. Turn mascarpone into bowl and gently break up with a fork.
   
3. Gently fold cream mix into mascarpone until well blended and very creamy. Don’t use electric mixer, the mix will almost curdle. Use as in #9 above.

Corn Bread - Straight Up & As A Stuffing

I'm 9 days into the rotation diet. Up until today, I was managing ok - pretty good actually, with minimal whining. I've been getting creative - making yogurt out of goat milk, making buckwheat pancakes without eggs, enjoying teff chocolate pudding and amaranth banana bread... I've even been out to eat twice without much planning time and managed just fine, to my surprise. ...and my husband has not felt too inconvenienced, which is a bonus.

But today, I don't feel well. Everything I had planned to eat today is making my stomach turn just at the thought. It's one of those things where I don't want to eat, but I'm feeling so weak that I need to have something. So, I resorted to toast - a kind that is off the rotation plan. I'm thinking that I will get right back on the rotation horse as soon as I can. Right now, I just need some plain calories so that I don't faint or puke (sorry!)...

A good day to answer some requests I've had for a gluten free cornbread recipe. In my family, we grew up eating homemade cornbread every Saturday. When four of us discovered we could not tolerate gluten, my mom adapted her recipe for us! This past Saturday, I asked her if she was making a batch and she said "yes!" I ran right over to take a picture (and grab some for my freezer for when it fits into my rotation schedule).

Mom's Saturday Cornbread
Ingredients

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 C oil
• 1 C milk- whichever you can tolerate
  
• 1/4 honey or sugar, or 2 T agave
  
• 1 C GF flour mix (preferably a kind without bean flour in it)
  
• 1 C yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 T baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 9X9 baking sheet.
2. Mix together first 4 ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together last 4 dry ingredients.
4. Add the wet into the dry and combine, but not too much.
5. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until it's slightly golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

This goes great with chili! Or make it into a stuffing...

Ingredients

• about 2/3 of the above cornbread recipe, cubed
• 2 C chopped and peeled apples
• 1 C diced carrots
• ¾ C diced onions
• ½ C diced celery
• ½ C chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 1/4 C dried cranberries (optional)
  
• ½ t ground nutmeg
• 2 t salt
• 1 t pepper
• ½ C butter or oil
• 1 C GF chicken stock

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300.
2. Spread cornbread cubes on a cookie sheet and bake 10 – 15 min or until dry.
   
3. In a skillet, place the butter or oil along with the carrots, onions, and celery. Cook until beginning to turn translucent.
4. Add the nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Turn off heat.
   
5. In a large bowl, combine the bread, veggies, apples and nuts.
6. Pour mixture into a baking pan and pour chicken stock all over. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Sweet Potato Sausage Stew

Couple of things to tell you about first:

1. The Nov 1st edition of the Gluten Free Lifestyle Blog Carnival is up at Sustaining Health Holistically. Check it out for some great recipes, product reviews, and more!
   
2. A fantastic recipe roundup of pumpkin treats for "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free" is up at Life Gluten Free.
3. Today is Monday, so swing by Simply Sugar & Gluten Free for a collection of Slightly Indulgent recipes. You could also win a great give-a-way - new e-cookbooks!

One week of the rotation diet down! It's not so bad, I've decided. The thing that has bothered me the most is the difficulty with being spontaneous. With practice, I think this will get easier. A big plus is that we are both eating healthier (even though Brian is not doing this with me) - a lot more veggies and vegetarian meals in general, though I'm posting a meal-filled recipe today...

Soups and stews are among the most wonderful aspects of the cool weather season. I love to toss some things together and have them meld into a tasty, warm, comforting meal. We had this for a couple of dinners recently.

Ingredients:

• 1 T oil
• 1/2 pound sausage, chopped
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (1 pound) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 small hot green chile pepper, diced
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 (16 ounce) can chic peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 apple - peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
  

Directions:

1. Heat oil in bottom of soup pot or dutch oven. Add sausage and allow to brown for about 7 min, breaking it up occasionally.
2. Add onions and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes.
3. Add sweet potatoes and red pepper and cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, chili pepper, and water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Stir in chic peas, apple, cilantro, salt, and pepper and allow to simmer for 5 more minutes.

Enjoy!

This post is linked to What Can I Eat That's Gluten Free (Soup Theme)?