The Gluten-Free Homemaker

It’s interesting to look back over the posts I wrote in 2010.  Some of my  favorite recipes were developed last year, and yet I feel like I’ve been making them for years.  I’m also reminded that most of my recipes were filled with dairy before I went dairy free, and how your comments were so helpful in that transition.

It’s difficult to narrow down my favorite posts, but here are my top five picks in three categories.

 
Gluten-Free Living/Celiac Disease
Gluten-Free Frugality 
Is It Gluten Free?  Reading Labels 
Managing Gluten in Your Kitchen
Gluten Cross Contamination 
Autoimmune Diseases



Gluten-Free Cooking
Vegetable Lasagna 
Pancakes 
Baked Meatballs
Chicken Cacciatore 
Spaghetti Sauce


 
Gluten-Free Baking
Chocolate Coconut Muffins 
Pineapple Coconut Muffins
Pecan Praline Cake 
Multipurpose Pastry Dough 
Apple Turnovers

Thanks for your comments and emails in 2010.  They are always valuable to me so keep them coming!

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There was a severe thunderstorm in our area last Sunday.  It left hundreds of thousands without power.  Our electricity went out about 4:00 pm and didn’t return until 9:00 pm Monday night.  Many people went three or four days without power.  That got me thinking about what you can eat when you don’t have electricity to cook with.

Don’t Cook
It just so happened that I had stopped by Giant and picked up some chicken salad to have for lunch that day.  I bought plenty and we ended up eating it for dinner also. Sandwiches and salads are easy to make and don’t require electricity.

Besides going out and buying cooked food, you could use any cooked meat you have in the refrigerator or freezer, or canned meat such as tuna. These meats could be used on a sandwich or on top of a green salad. Don’t forget other protein sources like peanut butter or cheese. 

If you have milk in the refrigerator that needs to be used, eat cold cereal for breakfast or any other time.  And use up other cold foods that are in that frig like yogurt, fresh fruit, and vegetables.

Cook on the Grill
When power goes out during the summer, a big concern is the food you have in your refrigerator and freezer.  If you have uncooked meat in there, it’s great if you can cook it.  Of course, those of you with a gas range don’t have anything to worry about, but if your stove is electric, you can turn to a grill.  I didn’t need to use mine much, but if we had gone longer without power, I would have been pulling chicken breasts out of my chest freezer and grilling them. 

Lots of things can be cooked on the grill including vegetables, potatoes, and corn on the cob.  A side burner is handy for heating a can of beans or making an evening snack of popcorn. 

Eat Out
Restaurants are the obvious choice here, but what about asking a friend or family member if you can come to their house and cook dinner for everyone (or at least help).  Unplanned times like that can be fun and memorable.

What are your suggestions for eating when the power goes out?

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I just thought I would let you all know that today I have a guest post at Good (& CHEAP) Eats. My friend Jessica is doing a Build a Frugal Pantry series which started off this week with the theme of flours.  She kindly invited me to do a post on gluten-free flours, even though she does not cook or eat gluten free.  I'm looking forward to next week which will be about whole grains.

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I’ve not been feeling well this week, so I don’t have a New Year’s recipe for you.  I thought I would give you a new year greeting using a few of my old recipes.  I intended to use only recipes from 2009, but I found a couple of the letters in the acrostic to be challenging and had to pull a few from 2008.   I do hope that you all have a safe celebration tonight and a blessed new year ahead of you.

Ham & Potato Casserole
Apple Strudel
Pine-Applesauce Cake
Pumpkin Pie
Yellow Cake 




Nacho Casserole
Enchiladas
Waffles






Yummy Cinnamon Rolls
Eggs, Deviled
Apple & Cranberry Salsa
Rotini, Zucchini

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Since the Christmas Tour of Homes is going on this week at Nesting Place, I thought I would deviate from my usual food posts.  I hope you don’t mind.  My hope is that it will give you a better feel for who I am.

I’m not a fancy person.  I guess it’s a good thing because I have three boys (and no girls) and they just don’t “get” fancy.  In addition, my husband grew up in the mountains of northern Idaho.  So over the years we have tended towards a more rustic look.  Not too rustic, but you’ll see what I mean in the pictures below.

 

 

This year we went with simple decorations on the tree.  I have some pine cone garland wrapped around it which you can’t really see in the picture and red ball ornaments.  We have lots of other ornaments, but we decided we liked the simple look this year.

Notice the tree skirt has a plaid border, pine trees, and a moose.

 

 

 

The kids’ stockings follow theme of the skirt.  They are hung on the rough wood mantle of our fireplace which has a stone wall surrounding it.  (This is in our living room.)

 

 

 

The crèche is in our dining room and I like the way the manger is made of rough natural materials.  This set was a gift from my mother in law.  She had a tradition of buying one for each of her children they year they were married.

 

 

Finally, here’s a decoration that I found at the thrift store this fall.  I wasn’t looking for it, but I happened upon it and it was in great shape.

 

We do have some outside decorations and lights, but I don’t have a good picture.  What are some of your favorite holiday decorations? 

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No Internet.  No cell phones.  Mountains, trees, and farms.  The smells of fall.  The beauty of nature.  Really delicious food.  Family.  Fun.  Card games. Hugs.  Smiles.  Laughter.  That was my Thanksgiving, and it lasted four days.

I’m back now, and just wanted to say hello.  I don’t have a recipe for you, but I will soon.  I wish I had food pictures for you, but unfortunately my camera battery was low and I saved it for pictures of people.

My brother loves to cook.  It’s a hobby for him, so he is happy to do most of the cooking when we get together and give us wives a break.  I couldn’t keep myself out of the kitchen completely, though.  My brother does a great job of meeting various dietary needs of the family.  Most of what he cooked was gluten free.  The little bit that wasn’t, I didn’t miss.  Here is a list of some of the things we ate over our four days together:

• oyster stew
• fried oysters (not gf)
• potato chowder
• roast turkey breast
• ham
• mashed potatoes w/gravy
• autumn casserole (the one I told you about last week)
• green beans cooked w/ham
• ratatouille
• rice pilaf w/raisins & pine nuts
• mahi mahi stuffed with crab imperial (wonderful!)
• butternut squash soup
• apple pie (not gf)
• pumpkin pie (gf)
• fudge
• sausage
• eggs
• hash browns
• fried apples & onions

Oh, it was all so good.  And I didn’t get sick!!!  Best of all though, was the time we had together as family.
I am thankful for my family, and I’m thankful for my cyber friends.  Whether rowdy and fun or quiet and peaceful, I hope you had an enjoyable holiday also.

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Last Christmas I gave a number of food gifts.  I combined them all in a nice basket, but of course I don’t have a picture.  I thought I would highlight a few of the ideas I used, though, and I do have a couple of pictures of individual things.



Roasted Cinnamon nuts – just click the link to see the recipe I used.  You can find other recipes online.  Some are spicy too.  They are easy to make, and most people enjoy nuts.  Nuts can be expensive.  I bought large bags of them at BJ’s which made it more economical.




Herbes de Provence – For some reason I can’t find the recipe I used for this, but recipes abound on the internet.  Most use lavender, which I wasn’t able to find, so I used one that contained thyme, basil, oregano, and rosemary.  I specifically bought spices in jars that I liked so I could use them to package the mix.  I made the labels on the computer and printed them onto label paper (which I happened to have). The bottle show is the one I’m using, but the ones I gave away were full.














Vanilla extract – It takes several months for this extract to reach a good flavor, but even though it wouldn't be completely ready in time for Christmas, you could still give it as a gift and tell them is needs to sit a couple more months before use.   I started making vanilla well before Christmas, but had trouble deciding how to bottle it.  I looked in craft stores and didn’t find anything I liked.  I ended up buying salad dressing just for the bottles.  I don’t have a picture of them, but they were round glass bottles.  The salad dressing was put into canning jars and the bottles were cleaned thoroughly.

I think food gifts are an excellent way to go at Christmas, especially if you don’t know what some one has/doesn’t have or what they need/don’t need.  Everyone eats!  Just remember to take into consideration special diets and eating preferences and whether or not someone is likely to use it.  A single man who never bakes isn’t likely to appreciate the vanilla extract, but might love home made cookies!

For more edible gift ideas see Gluten-Free Holiday: Gifts of Good Taste and The Holiday Food Fest (not necessarily gluten free).

Labels: gluten-free recipes, miscellaneous

Friday night our celiac support group had a guest speaker.  She was a woman who works for the USDA and has 25+ years of nutrition research experience.  She also happens to have celiac disease.  I found her presentation on organic foods interesting and took some notes I thought I would share with you.  I’m sorry if it sounds disjointed as I mention points that were addressed in the well prepared slide presentation.

In the U.S., organic means the food was grown without any synthetic fertilizer or sewage and is free of pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones, GMO’s, artificial food additives and irradiation.

Food labeled organic has to contain at least 95% organic ingredients.  Both organic and 100% organic foods fall under the “USDA Organic” label.

Note:  My notes were incomplete on the following two lists, so I used the Internet to fill in the few I was missing.

If you are only going to buy some organic foods, the most important foods to buy organic are:

• peaches
• apples
• pears
• potatoes
• bell peppers
• celery
• nectarines
• carrots
• strawberries
• cherries
• grapes
• kale
• leafy greens (Did you know that greens are packaged in the field?)

Foods that you don’t need to worry about are:

• asparagus
• broccoli
• blueberries
• kiwi
• mango
• onion
• watermelon
• peas
• bananas
• avocado
• cabbage
• garlic
• sweet corn
• pineapple
• mango
• eggplant
• papaya

While some people talk about nutrient depletion of soil, a bigger problem is that our foods have been modified to grow faster.  Faster growth means less time in the soil and less time to absorb nutrients.

Fresh is better than frozen, frozen is better than canned.  The nutrient content of fresh food is always better than frozen.  It’s best if foods are allowed to ripen on the plant.

A recent study found that organic foods are not better nutritionally than non organic foods.  What the study did not address is the amount of pesticides and other things that can be harmful to our health.  Just because they have the same amount of nutrition does mean they are the same.

We had some discussion about possible risks associated with non organic food, especially pesticide use.  The speaker did recommend using a vegetable wash on non organic fruit and vegetables.  At the end, she briefly shared her experience of being able to lose weight when she did an organic food detoxification diet.

Recent studies have linked pesticide exposure to increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, including this study done by Harvard School of Public Health.

Grass fed beef is better than corn fed.  “Grass finished” means they fed the cows grass in the last few weeks before slaughter.  They have found that doing this keeps them from having to use antibiotics.  Many, however, choose to feed corn the entire time because it is cheaper.

The movie Food, Inc. came out in June.  If you click the link you can watch the trailer.  I look forward to watching it when the DVD is released in November.  As someone in the trailer points out, we’re voting every time we go to the store.  We’re voting for organic or non organic, local or not.

I will finish with where the speaker began.  Many of us (depending on your age) grew up on organic food, not because our mom’s went to an organic market, but because that was how all food was produced.  Our moms went to the store multiple times a week, sometimes daily.  We want to shop once a week.  Food is naturally perishable, so something has to be done to make it last longer. 

Times have changed, and food has changed.  Most of us would agree that it hasn’t changed for the better.  I’m sure that fingers can be pointed in numerous directions, but I got wondering how much it should be pointed at me.  What part have I played as a consumer in encouraging bad practices and changes to food?  More importantly, what can I do now to help bring about change for the good?  In these economic times, many of us are trying to cut the grocery budget, but we must remember that, like it or not, we’re voting with our money.

Where do you stand on the issue of organic food?

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I first published this post last October when many of you were not reading my blog. I thought I would republish it for this week's Friday Foodie Fix corn theme.
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I have a pretty bad memory so I'm often amused by the things that I actually remember. For example, I can tell you my 14 digit library card number. How many of you can do that? Here's something else I remember.

Back when I was single, I baby sat for a family with four kids. One evening I arrived in time to feed them dinner. Dinner was prepared; I just had to oversee mealtime. Well, I was shocked, not in a disapproving way just in a surprised way, to find that they were having popcorn with their dinner! Popcorn, I thought, was a great snack food, but definitely not a dinner food. The kids didn't have any problems eating their popcorn, though!

When I had my own kids, that memory came to mind, and I have occasionally served popcorn for dinner myself. In fact, I did it just the other night. I was very tired, I had meat thawed that I could easily cook, I had broccoli already washed, cut, and ready to steam, but I didn't feel like preparing potatoes or even rice. Popcorn to the rescue!

Personally, I will eat microwave popcorn, but it's not my favorite. I like the taste of it prepared the old fashioned way. That does take a bit more effort and time than popping it in the microwave, but even that didn't seem too overwhelming. I do have an electric corn popper (not an air popper) that we received for Christmas a couple of year ago. If you microwave yours, then popcorn is an even quicker, easier side dish for dinner.

Now for a quick food lesson. Many people think of corn as a vegetable. It's not. It's a grain like rice or wheat. Did you know that you can pop any grain? I've tried popped rice and popped sorghum. The sorghum looks like miniature popcorn and tastes almost exactly like it. What grains have you popped?

Corn is starchy like potatoes, rice or noodles. So why not use it in place of one of those once in a while? Your kids will love it!

For some great corn recipes check out this week's Friday Foodie Fix at The W.H.O.L.E. Gang.

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Here’s a meme that seemed like fun and lets you get to know me a little better. The problem is that I really don’t have “favorites.”  I just chose things that would be high on my list.

The pictures answer these questions:

1. What is your name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your hometown?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. What is your favorite movie?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What is one word to describe yourself?
10. How are you feeling right now?
11. What do you love most in the world?
12. What do you want to be when you grow up?

To play, visit Big Huge Labs.  Set up your mosaic to be 4 columns by 3 rows.  To answer the questions, go to Google image search.  Put your answer to each question in the search box and choose a picture from the first three pages.  You can right click the picture and then copy image location.  When you have filled in all 12 image URLs, click the “create” button.  If some of your pictures don’t show up, click the edit button above the mosaic and try a different image. When you’re done, click save to save the mosaic to your computer.

If this sounds like fun to you, play along.  I’m not going to tag anyone, but thanks to Jen at Feeling Better Gluten Free for tagging me.

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I have ordered gluten-free products from Amazon but have never taken advantage of their subscribe and save program.  It is definitely something worth considering.  The program offers an extra 15% off, plus free shipping. You subscribe to have the products delivered ever one, two, three or six months, but you can change your delivery schedule or cancel at any time.
The extra 15% savings and free shipping can really make a difference.  The catch is figuring out how often you will need something and making sure you don’t end up with too much. 
They have a great list of gluten-free products that are eligible for their subscribe and save program, including the new Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes, as well as gluten-free mixes from Bob's Red Mill, Pamela's, and The Gluten-Free Pantry.
Do you use the subscribe and save program?  If so, how do you like it?

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This is purely a personal post which has nothing to do with celiac disease or gluten-free living. I was so thrilled about this heron, though, I just had to tell you about it.

We bought this house four years ago and the first thing we saw was the back yard. That was all it took. The yard had so much character and a pond, which the boys thought was really cool. We’ve done a lot to the yard since then, including rebuilding the pond and adding a beautiful waterfall.

One morning last week I heard my youngest son making a commotion. He had looked out an upstairs window and saw this great blue heron standing in our waterfall. He wanted us to come see it, but he didn’t want to stop watching. This heron was really big, “scary big” as one of my boys said. We stood there amazed when someone finally said, “Get the camera!” The picture was taken from my kitchen window, and while you don’t get the full effect, I think it turned out pretty well. The bird spread its great wings and flew off shortly after I took the picture, and that was our excitement for the day. It’s nice to know that even living in a D.C. suburb, we get our share of wildlife. I’m still waiting to see one of the pileated woodpeckers that live in our neighborhood. Maybe I’ll have a picture to share one day.

I’m going out of town for a couple of days so I won’t have a Friday Foodie Fix post tomorrow. I’ll be back next week and will post the giveaway winners!

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As many of you know, I’ve been rather busy in recent weeks with my oldest son’s graduation. The graduation was Saturday and it was a wonderful event. I will treasure the memory of it. The party at our house also went well. Thankfully, with most of the graduates having parties at the same time, people were party hopping and didn’t all show up at once. It was nice having a stream of people coming and going. We also had family on my side and my husband’s side of the family who were able to be there. The weather prediction sounded bad, but we ended up being to enjoy our backyard for most of the party.That was a blessing.

Now I have a little more time to devote to this blog and reading many of your blogs. I have gotten behind on reading RSS feeds and returning comments, some of which I will not catch up on. However, please know that I truly appreciate all your comments.

In addition, I have a mini laptop computer (one of those really little ones) that crashed a couple of months ago. I finally passed it on to a very kind and generous friend who was able to fix it for me. Yeah! That means it will be easier for me to keep up with reading and will enable me to Twitter more often.

While life with teens is never slow, and the spring weather is calling me outdoors, I look forward to sharing more time with you!

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Woman’s Day magazine publishes a monthly menu plan which is also available online. Although it’s not a gluten-free menu, many of the meals can easily be made gluten free.  If you need ideas, this page has menus and corresponding shopping lists going back to January of 2008. 

A couple of features I like about their menus are Meatless Monday (self explanatory) and Planned Leftovers (On Sundays, you cook extra meat which is then used in a different way on Tuesday.) While recipes are not provided for every aspect of each meal, there is a recipe or instructions for part of it. The rest is easy to figure out. For example, the menu for May 16 is mustard-glazed salmon, rice pilaf, and asparagus. A recipe for the mustard glaze is provided with instructions to spoon over salmon filets and bake. You are on your own in making the rice pilaf and asparagus.

Take a look, Woman's Day Month of Menus might inspire you!

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Last week was intensely busy for me, so once again I’m late passing on some news. If you haven’t heard, next month Starbucks will begin offering a prepackaged cake.

“The pastry, called Valencia Orange Cake, will be made with seven ingredients which are all 100 percent gluten-free, the company said. The cake will be sold in individually wrapped packages for $2.25 each and will be available beginning May 5.”

To learn more read this article at Forbes.com.

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Amazon.com has a number of sales going on this month. I thought you might be interested in their Natural and Organic Groceries Sale which includes products from EnviroKidz, Nature’s Path, Newman’s Own Organics, and others. Be sure to take note of the special offer at the top of the page to save $15 and get a free Earthwise shopping bag. Click here to see the sale. Most offers end April 30th.

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I like receiving Christmas letters from family and friends. Let's face it. Who has time to write long personal notes to everyone on their Christmas card list? I like hearing what's going on in people's lives. It's nice if they add a brief personal note, but either way I think a form letter is better than a card with only a signature.

Having said that, I should correct myself and say that I like a well written Christmas letter. There are lots of ways that can be done. What I don't like are letters that give lots of details, details that only a few people would be interested in (maybe only one person, Grandma).

Since I like receiving those letters, I also send them. I've done it different ways over the years. Some have had a full page of writing. Some have had half a page of writing. Some have had pictures on them and some haven't. This year I wasn't inspired to write much. Instead I put lots of pictures on the page. I didn't get a good family picture taken so I included pictures of individual family members. Next to the pictures I added a brief description of what each person was doing. I think it turned out well. People can see how the kids are growing and how hubby and I are aging, and they learn the basics of what we've been up to.

Writing a Christmas letter works for me. How about you? Do you like receiving them? Do write them?

To find out what works for other people visit Rocks in My Dryer's Works for Me Wednesday.

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I know it's only Tuesday, but I want to say happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I will be spending time with extended family tomorrow through Saturday and won't be blogging. I hope all of you will have an enjoyable time with family or friends, in large gatherings or small. I hope you enjoy delicious gluten-free food and don't get glutened. I hope that the need to eat gluten free and watch out for cross-contamination does not cause a lot of stress or take away from enjoying time with people. I hope that you can find plenty to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for...

• not having to take drugs to deal with celiac disease
• gluten-free cooks who blazed the trail when eating gluten free was not common
• delicious gluten-free food
• a loving family
• a healthy family
• wonderful friends
• a forgiving God
• my adorable dogs
• my comfortable home
• my kind blog readers
• my computer

Well, the list could go on and on. I hope yours does too. Happy Thanksgiving!

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It's Works for Me Wednesday time again, and I thought I would tell you about a few computer shortcuts I have recently discovered. I really like some of these and thought you might too. Did you know that you can:

1. Highlight a word in any document, e-mail, or Web page by double clicking it. Triple click to highlight the whole paragraph.



2. Enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it’s the Command key and plus or minus.



3. Enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse. On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image. This also works in Word documents.



4. Scroll down on a Web page one screenful by tapping the space bar once. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.



5. Hide all windows, revealing only what’s on the computer desktop, by hitting the Windows key and “d” simultaneously in Windows, or press F11 on Macs (on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo). Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.



6. Switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt and Tab (Windows) or Command and Tab (Mac). While holding down the Alt key, press Tab once. A small window will pop up showing the programs that are open. You can then tab to the one you want to view next. When you release the Alt key, that program will be the one in view.



7. Highlight one space at a time going to the right or the left by using Shift and the right or left arrow keys. Highlight one line at a time going up or down by using Shift up or down arrow.



8. Jump to the beginning of the next word by hitting Ctrl and right arrow. Jump to the beginning of the previous word by hitting Ctrl left arrow.

For other great ideas visit Rocks in My Dryer Works for Me Wednesday.

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If you are a regular reader of my blog (not just a subscriber), please read through this entire post.

First, thank you, thank you! I'm very excited that there are people interested in my little blog. I would love to hear from more of you. If you don't have a blog of your own, you probably have no idea how much a comment means to a blogger. Especially one who is just starting out. Comments can be long or short. I'll take anything! Besides providing encouragement to continue blogging, comments can help me to understand what my readers benefit from the most. Comments can also help to educate and inform me.

If you would like to send me an email rather than a comment, you can use the "contact" button under the header of each page. I have also added and email option at the end of my feeds. I'm happy to communicate with people this way and answer specific questions. I'd also like to hear from you if you have something you would like me to write a post about. It could be a particular topic, ideas for solving a problem, or a particular kind of recipe. Just let me know.

Regarding the feed issues, it seems that feedburner is updating my feed in a timely manner. However, Google reader, and likely the other readers, does not check for updates frequently. This is because, being a new blog, I don't have a lot of subscribers. Basically, I'm low man on the totem pole. Oh well.

I have added the option of email subscription. This sends you an email once a day, not every time I add something. And if I don't post anything on a given day, you don't receive an email.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks again for reading my blog.

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