Gluten Free Cooking Spree - Coming to Boston?

I was bouncing around blogs, websites, forums and saw that the NFCA Gluten-Free Cooking Spree was happening in NYC, and that it is sold out!

Here is some info about the Gluten-Free Cooking Spree:

The Gluten-Free Cooking Spree is an event that joins together the medical and lifestyle aspects of celiac disease. The event began as a partnership between the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, the Drexel University School of Public Health and the Drexel University School of Hospitality Management in an effort to educate people about the wonderful world of gluten-free cooking.

NFCA paired culinary arts students with prominent physicians from nine hospitals in the Philadelphia area and taught them basic lessons about celiac disease and how to prepare gluten-free meals. After the training, the doctors partnered with students to compete in developing gluten-free recipes and preparing the delicious results. George Perrier of Le Bec-Fin and Christina Pirello, host of Christina Cooks, judged the food entries on taste and presentation. The winning team received a cooking lesson from George Perrier.

People who attended the event were able to watch the teams prepare their recipes and enjoyed a variety of gluten-free food and drinks from local vendors.

Here is the page online:
http://www.celiaccentral.org/Events/Gluten_Free_Cooking_Sprees/331/

Scrolling down to the bottom I see that there will be cooking sprees in Boston in 2007!

This event will also be taking place in Washington, Philly, Atlanta, San Fran & St. Louis.... I signed up at the bottom, it sounds like a great idea and a lot of fun.

I have no other information right now, but emailed to find out more - I'll let you know what I hear.

Bread Dilemma

I need to issue a few questions to breadmakers out there.

As you know I bought the Breadman Breadmaker last week and was very excited to use it this weekend. My bread mix I ordered had not yet arrived, so I went to the store and bought the Gluten Free Pantry's Favorite Sandwich Bread. The problem: this was a 2 lb mix, and the Breadman can only make 1.5 lb on gluten free setting.

SO - do I pick a different setting? How do I modify the 2lb recipe for a 1.5 lb?? It seems tricky, especially with the yeast.

Also, my Pamela's Mix that I ordered last week jsut got here today and sure enough, it's a 2 lb loaf recipe!

Any thoughts greatly appreciated... I'm a novice baker to be sure, and bread-making is a tricky business, I don't want to waste a lot of mix!

THANK YOU

Absentee Blogger

Hello everyone!

I've been a terrible blogger as of late - work has been SO NUTS, I haven't had a chance to do any updating at all.

Update: Thanks to reading Karina's website - I have purchased the Breadman Breadmaker! I got it yesterday, and I can't wait to try it out - let me know if you have any recipes, tips, etc on using this machine. I also purchased some Pamela's Bread Mix and Gluten Free Pantry mix - those have not yet arrived....

Also - I would love to re-design the look of this site. Blogger is very limited in its options, and it's difficult to add my own look to it. As a designer, I have a million other ideas of how to make this site look better - but no way to do it in Blogger (that I'm aware of) - again, I'm asking your advice, any thoughts? This current look is through a third-party site, but I want to make it my own. Help?

Hope everyone doing great... I'll post again soon.. Sunday I'm having an Oscars party with lots of gluten free goodies - I'll give you an update.

Banana Nut Muffins

I was recently browsing the forums at GlutenFreeForums.com the other day, and saw a thread on banana bread. I immediately had a craving for it, and reading through the recipes, Amy gave one for Banana Muffins. The recipe she gave was not just gluten free, but lactose free & vegan (I think, no eggs).

I made a few modifications, added nuts, used real milk & eggs - so I'm not sure if I got the measurements exactly right - I'm sure some of you more experienced bakers out there would know - I'm more of a beginner with baking, I'm usually cooking something salty.

So in case you're interested, here's the recipe I used:

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup crisco
2 eggs
1 large banana, mashed
1/2 cup of milk - a little more was added when it was too doughy
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used Tom Sawyers, see link below)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Crushed walnuts - or any nut of your choice, about a cup

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl sift together all dry ingredients and set aside. In a small bowl mash the banana. In a large bowl cream together crisco and sugar. Add eggs, mashed banana, milk & vanilla. Mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well (this was where I realized i needed more milk!) Spoon into muffin tins, I used individual wrappers for minimul clean-up.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. About 5-8 minutes before they're done, sprinkle walnuts on top of muffins. OR mix them right into the batter, I think I'll try that next time, because the walnuts taste really delicious with this. Remove from oven. Let cool on rack. They tasted great out of the oven, cut in half, with a little bit of low-fat butter, and for the next day & day after that, microwave, bit-o-butter & ENJOY!

Tom Sawyer's Gluten Free Flour

Nigella is a genius

I caught a few minutes of "Nigella Bites" on the Food Network this weekend. I used to watch her show years ago, and had a few of her cookbooks, she is the best, if you've never heard of her - Google her, look for her, read her books, you will not regret it. She makes amazing food.

So in the few minutes I caught her show, I happened to tune into a quick & easy "working woman" soup which was great, because I wanted soup yesterday and had barely any groceries, and lucky me - it was gluten free (didn't mean to rhyme there, but how cute).

All it is, and you may have done this before, but I think it's genius, is a jar of pasta sauce, I have a tomato basil brand I love - dump it into a pan, add boiling water, and rice - and voila, Tomato & Rice soup.

I think the key here is a really great jar of tomato sauce, since that is where you get your whole flavor. I also added a can of crushed tomatoes, and some chicken stock (because i love salt), and a little extra basil & topped with parmesan cheese. YUM. And it took about 2 minutes to prepare, and 15ish to cook.

Also - Nigella has contributed to "The Gluten-Free Bible.." and has some great gluten free recipes, especially desserts for example see here

A great dining experience

Going out with a girlfriend for dinner last night - the first sushi place we planned on turned out to be closed, shut down forever! I was totally bummed - so we thought of another place around the corner, actually in the Westin Hotel in Copley Square called OSushi. I had been there a while ago, and remembered it was good.

I don't know what has been going on lately, but I have been CRAVING sushi all the time. I really can't get enough. I have my favorites - Tuna, Alaska, Salmon, yellowtail - and especially the seaweed salad. So last night we sit down, it's a cool place, small, and with loud techno, order some Sake, miso soup and for some reason it dawns on me to ask if the seaweed salad has soy sauce in it. Now, I've been eating this for the past month or more, every week, and I just think of this now?! Sometimes I really blank of watching the food I eat.

Then the waitress asks, do I have a food allergy? Yes, I do. Wheat? Why, yes. Celiac? Wow - yes, I do!
(It's amazing to me that people know about this, I don't know why).

This waitress turns out to be the best. Finds some wheat-free Tamari buried in the kitchen. Informs me without asking what I can/can't eat. She was awesome! It turns out her best friend has celiac so she knows all about it.

Back to the seaweed - I'm completely bummed. And, pissed - I've been thinking I've been doing so well and not eating gluten, and it turns out I was wrong.

So - the dinner was so great - Kobe Beef Rolls? Umm, the greatest thing ever... They also have the best miso soup I think I've ever had. If you're in town - go there, look for the short, cute brunette waitress - she'll hook you up.

Happy 2007!

Hello all... I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday & new year! Best wishes to you in 2007!

So, I found RedBridge soon after posting about it thanks to a comment I received- and I must say it's quite good!! I actually enjoy drinking it. In fact, my boyfriend (not a celiac) STOLE my last two, which was rather annoying actually.

It tastes a lot like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale -- which happened to be my favorite beer pre dx - so this is great!

Also, it looks like the retail locater is working now - so look for it at a store near you!! Now, I just need to convince my local bar to keep it in stock - possibly even on draft?