lpellegr

If you want to make a traditional crust, rolling pin and all, Bette Hagman's Vinegar crust recipe is not only good enough to fool wheat flour people, I recently pulled a frozen ball of it out of my freezer (from 11/07!) and once it was thawed it worked out perfectly! I was impressed.

Even if all you do is gently microwave a bag of chocolate chips until melted (they won't look melted, so stir frequently), it still makes pretty good fondue. You can add cream if you want and a splash of liquor (Kahlua, creme de menthe, etc) or vanilla extract for extra flavor, even toss in chopped nuts. Banana pieces, apple chunks, mandarin orange sections, gluten-free pretzels, and chunks of gluten-free banana nut bread (or something similar) are great. Or just paint it on something special and lick it off......

I hate having to discourage well-meaning people who want to bake you something gluten-free, but when I politely explain to them about cross-contamination of their house and utensils with flour, etc, they usually give up. If they are persistent and say they will use a gluten-free mix or something, and they just have to provide me with something, I counter with something pre-packaged I can eat, like Pirate Booty or Kozy Shack pudding. As for the people passing out samples, if they are annoying and persistent I just toss out the words "Food allergy" or "Allergies" as I go by. That gives you a good excuse to say no. I also tell people I have an unbreakable rule that I never put anything in my mouth unless I can read the label. When they ask what will happen, I start with pain in the gut, hint at more gastro-intestinal distress, then finish with, "you really don't want to hear it, believe me."

I just got a free sample of this stuff, and I think it takes gall to call it gluten-free. Says so right on the bottle, under "wheat dextrin" and 10ppm gluten. No idea if 10ppm will set me off, but I don't think I'll do the experiment.

My first month gluten-free I gained a whole painful cup size, maybe because I was starting to absorb nutrients that affected my hormones. I think occasionally when I get glutened it affects the timing of my cycle and whether or not I get breast pain.

At least you didn't come across them on a menu!

I have eaten 6 months expired yogurt and lived to tell the tale (more than once - okay, I'm not good at keeping up with what's in the fridge). If it is unopened and looks and smells fine upon opening, go ahead. Heck, it's just spoiled milk anyway, but spoiled in a precise and specific way. I expect that the live cultures will be dead soon after the expiration date but the yogurt itself will be fine if unopened and refrigerated.

DMSO is an industrial solvent, among other things. In the lab we use it to dissolve things that won't dissolve in water. I would never ingest it or even put it on my skin - anything that has dissolved in it will be carried into your skin with it. Just smelling it can put a bad taste in your mouth (I love garlic and would never say that DMSO gives you a garlic taste - yuk!). When the bottle has been opened it quickly absorbs water and who knows what else from the air. Don't use it as any kind of medicine, no matter what anyone tells you.

The Rite-Aid generic versions, with the same active ingredients, work fine with no gluten effects and are much cheaper. I'm not sure it would be possible to absorb gluten antigens through THAT mucous membrane, but I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Avoid breadstick tampons and biscuit diaphragms !

You might look at some of the South Beach frozen entrees, since the starting phase leaves out most carbs - I checked out a few a while back that seemed to be gluten-free, but something that would have contained maybe 5 or 6 ingredients if I had made it myself had about 40 ingredients. It might be gluten-free, but it's highly processed. There are also a few of the Dinty Moore shelf-stable meals that are gluten free but also full of extra ingredients.

Good noodles for chicken soup: Glutano Tagliatelle. They look and taste just like gluteny egg noodles. When I make chicken soup on the stove I add them at the end just long enough to cook them. Another soup noodle is Mrs. Leeper's alphabet noodles - these used to be just like regular alphabet noodles, but apparently they changed the dies used to make them and now they break really easily into tiny square chips of noodle as they cook. But if you like your soup thick with noodles and don't care about the final shape, they work fine. I bought a case of a dozen bags on A*mazon before I knew about the shape change, so I'll be eating these fragile boogers for a long time. And IMHO, noodles made from corn, quinoa, or potato just don't hold up as well as those made from rice.

Somebody posted a while back that she got unsalted butter that had flavorings added, and that glutened her. Salted butter is generally just butter and salt.

From Wikipedia:

Jus means the natural juices given off by the food. [1] To prepare a natural jus, the cook may simply skim off the fat from the juices left after cooking and bring the remaining meat stock and water to a boil. Jus can be frozen for up to two weeks.

Often prepared in the United States is a seasoned sauce with several additional flavourings. American au jus recipes often use soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, white or brown sugar, garlic, onion, or other ingredients to make something more like a gravy. So-called jus is sometimes prepared separately, rather than being produced naturally by the food being cooked. An example could be a beef jus made by reducing beef stock to a concentrated form, to accompany a meat dish.

Jus can also be made by extracting the juice from the original meat and combining it with another liquid eg: red wine (thus forming a red wine jus).

A powdered product described as jus is also sold, and is rubbed into the meat before cooking or added afterwards. Powdered forms generally use a combination of salt, dried onion, and sometimes sugar as primary flavoring agents. [2]

Sometimes au jus is used as a form of seasoning for beef dip sandwiches. Sometimes prepared with onion powder, brown sugar, garlic, cloves, nutmeg, and habanero chili oil.

Au jus means "with juice" in French, and often is not much more than concentrated beef broth with a little seasoning. You could thicken it up with a little cornstarch.

I think what they mean by yogurt cheese is plain yogurt, plopped into a coffee filter in a strainer, left over a bowl to catch the dripping whey overnight. I do this with regular yogurt to make it thick like Greek strained yogurt. Prop a sieve up over a bowl, line with coffee filter or cheesecloth, put in yogurt, cover if you like, and let sit. I do it in the fridge, but if you're going to use it right away you can probably do it at room temp. It gets a consistency between sour cream and cream cheese. I haven't tried it in recipes. It will still taste like yogurt or sour cream. I think if your soy yogurt is the consistency of dairy yogurt you can probably do the same and thicken it up.

I think we've all had a similar experience - at least we learned something from it. I don't eat anything that doesn't have a label I can read, just in case.

Good to hear. Yeah, in my bag for emergencies is the plan for these babies. Lots of good protein in there. Thanks!

Today I picked up Nature Valley Roasted Nut Crunch Almond Crunch bars. I miss the Sweet and Salty Nut bars and all their others (oatmeal doesn't work for me), so I gave the shelf a longing glance and noticed these. Ingredients: almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sugar, corn syrup, salt. No CYA "made on shared equipment with wheat" or similar statement. It would sure be nice to have these to carry along when I'm not sure I'll find safe food. I'm going to give them a try. Anybody try them yet? Any info?

Dorney update: two years later, they now say on their website that the fries that were previously listed as gluten-free are fried in oil with non-gluten-free items. Sucks.

Here's something I found by accident while trying to make corn bread: if you substitute Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal for cornmeal because you ran out of cornmeal or forgot where you put it, you get a wonderful gritty crunch to your cornbread - if you like that sort of thing. Thanks for the link.

What you're seeing is a recurring problem with gluten-free breads - you may need to just get used to it. Here are a few things you can try: reduce the water - save the last ounce or two until all the other ingredients are in, then see if you really need to add it. Try adding less yeast - I find a teaspoon will do where it calls for one package or 2-1/4 teaspoons. This only works if the yeast is good and not too old. It seems to keep the bubbles inside the loaf smaller and less likely to collapse. Don't let the bread rise any higher than the top of the pan before putting it in the oven - get your oven preheating early so it will be ready when the bread is, and check the rising bread frequently. Drape a clean dish towel over the bread while it rises, and watch for the bread to push it up in the middle. Put your bread pan in the oven with the short side facing the door - that way if it does rise to ridiculous heights at least it will be symmetrical.

This recipe calls for 3 cups of flour. I have had better luck with recipes that call for 2 cups of flour total. If you're getting this recipe from The Gluten-Free Gourmet, try the Four Flour Bean Bread, which only uses 2 cups of flour. Both of these recipes tend to crumble easily after the first day, though, and don't make good slices for keeping, but they make great bread crumbs or croutons. The Almost Pumpernickel bread in that same book lasts longer without getting crumbly - you can leave out the cocoa powder and caraway seeds and it will be lighter in color and less rye-like. These are decent recipes, but better ones have been developed over the years that don't crumble as much. Look up Lorka's flax bread on this site - much springier and stretchy inside, although I have had that one rise and fall as well. My breads are never consistent with the same recipe - sometimes great, sometimes not. It's the way of gluten-free, Grasshopper.

I noticed lately (I just started playing a lot more after playing infrequently for many years) that one of my problems when playing is that my fingers slip off the keys! I feel like I need some chalk for my fingers like gymnasts use on their feet. Maybe my cheap piano's keys are too slippery. Any ideas to get a little more traction between my fingers and the keys? My Chopin ends up Chopunk

I haven't been there in a long time and don't know of any gluten-free places (I wish!), but I thought there were some fast-food chain restaurants in mid-island (Ship Bottom or Beach Haven, maybe?). There are a lot of seafood places where you can probably get food that is naturally gluten-free, like the Harvey Cedars Seafood Company (dredging my memory for this). At diners or cafes you should be able to get fried eggs (if they're fried they can't possibly have added anything to them) or burgers without buns. When I travel I always carry a fanny pack with individual packs of tuna, raisins, fruit, cheese sticks - so at least I have something to eat if the menu doesn't give me any love. Might work for your son. Keep some snacks in your hotel room/house in case he can't fill up while out. In most grocery stores (I think there's at least one decent sized store on the island, if not you might have to go to the mainland) you can get a box of Rice Chex, maybe some Nut Thins to keep around for snacks. If you go to a nice restaurant like the Owl Tree the chef will most likely be accomodating to your wishes. You might want to print out something that you can hand to the waitstaff to take to the kitchen so they can check on your food ingredients before you order. I have the Triumph dining cards, but before I had them I made up my own on the computer, and I think you can find some free ones online.

If you have a Palm type PDA, you can subscribe to Clan Thompson's database with thousands of items and their gluten status, including restaurant foods. Worth it the first year or so while you are finding your way. For now, best to print out a list of ingredients to avoid and carry it with you, and spend a lot of time reading labels. It takes a while, but next year this time you will know what to avoid in your local stores and where to find stuff you need. It also helps if you decide to just do without expensive gluten-free replacements for processed foods you were used to - if you cut out processed foods (most everything in boxes on shelves) and opt for fresh produce, meat, eggs, and dairy, you'll eat healthier and save money.

I checked out several brands of lebanon boloney and they said they were gluten-free - sorry I don't have those e-mails anymore to confirm. If it's a new style (like "light" or "low fat") it could be different. When I was a kid I called it "My Favorite Meat" and ate it almost every day. I can still remember the unique taste of a lebanon boloney sandwich that has sat in your school locker all morning. It's hard to find outside of PA. Did you ever try it fried? Cut each piece in half and make a few cuts in the outer edge to keep it flat, then fry it until it shrinks and the fat cooks out. Pile up a huge quantity on soft white bread (I guess we'll have to leave that part out now) until the bread soaks up all the grease and eat with a smile . I once lived in Indiana in 1981, and when I asked the local store where the lebanon boloney was they had never heard of it and thought it might be middle eastern . No, not that Lebanon! I also miss scrapple - it's available here in NJ, but it all has flour in it. Maybe if I just make some polenta with pork broth and lots of pepper it will seem the same.

I agree - I don't think someone with any food allergies would volunteer or let themselves be picked out of the audiences for this. Would you? Don't bother changing the recipes. Sounds like fun - hectic, but fun.