Biscuits!!

so, too lazy to go to the grocery after some eggs, I decided to give xanthan gum one last try. I found this recipe online: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipe/detail.php?rid=112 and actually followed the instructions (except substituting the same volume of different flours, well, and without buttermilk, okay, I didn't really follow the recipe all that much after all, but much more closely than I normally would). They turned out pretty good, though barely enough for this family of four. I'll double the recipe next time, and bake at just a tad lower temp.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup Gluten Free Sweet White Sorghum Flour
1/4 cup Potato Starch
1/4 cup Tapioca Flour
1 tsp Sugar
1 Tb Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 cup Butter
1/2 cup Buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray, set aside.

Sift dry ingredients together in medium bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles small peas. Stir in enough buttermilk to form soft dough that holds its shape when pressed together. (You may not need all the buttermilk).

Place the mixture on prepared baking sheet. Lay sheet of waxed paper over biscuit mixture and press to 1” thickness and about 6” x 6” square or circle. Remove sheet of waxed paper and cut into 8 or 9 round biscuit shapes using a 2” biscuit cutter or open end of glass. Remove uncut portions of biscuit dough and gently shape into 2” circles, or simply cut dough into 9 square pieces and spread pieces across baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes 9 biscuits.

Pizza!

So who says eating gluten-free means being deprived? The family thought I was nuts to take a picture of our dinner, maybe they're right! LOL



This was our dinner last night (and possibly breakfast this morning). The crust is my favorite biscuit recipe plus a packet of yeast dissolved in hot water. The toppings are typical, except littlest one is allergic to tomatoes, so I use spinach for the "sauce" instead. Black olives for kids, mushrooms for Daddy. yummmm...

public service announcement

click here to take a quiz, "should I be gluten-free" link

I have endometriosis. I always have had it. The belly pains were present as far back as I can remember. I also have numerous food sensitivities that usually cause intestinal distress, not to mention environmental allergies and such-like. Perhaps you also have mystery belly pain? Maybe you have been to the doctor over and over again, trying to get some sort of answer. Lots and lots of people do. Perhaps, like myself, you tried certain dietary changes to see if it would help, seeing as how the doctors weren't much help. Sometimes the changes helped a bit, sometimes not. Perhaps, like me, you didn't give those changes long enough to really know one way or the other. I didn't realize that eliminating wheat causes withdrawal symptoms that are worse than what the wheat itself causes. So when I had gone a week (maybe two) without any wheat, and my belly pains were just as bad if not worse, I figured that was not the problem. It wasn't until my children were having issues that I looked into it further and tried eliminating wheat again, this time very gradually, and realized that I should not be eating it, ever. I was hoping it was just a wheat allergy, but the kids' and my problems did not completely go away after eliminating wheat and I went after other gluten-containing food ingredients, cutting back on them oh-so-gradually. With the elimination of each item from our diet, we continued to feel better and better. Now we eat no gluten of any kind. We also do not eat oats, which officially don't contain gluten but do cause the same symptoms in us, worse even. I didn't realize how bad I felt until I started feeling better. Now, instead of noticing the good days since they were so few and far between, I notice the bad ones instead. What my doctors called "IBS" or "unspecified intestinal/bowel inflammation" is gone! My children are not exhibiting autistic-like behaviors anymore. I am no longer constantly experiencing anger and rage and really scary mood swings unless I accidentally ingest gluten, which does happen occassionally. I have run into people that I suspect should not be eating gluten, but they don't want to hear about it. It breaks my heart. I know if they'd just give the gf diet a chance, they'd feel so much better. So, because of the reaction I get when I mention it, I simply bite my tongue most of the time. Anyway, take the quiz, it only takes ten minutes and it could drastically change your life forever.

...Or take this quiz instead, it's even quicker and gives a better idea about different symptoms that indicate celiac. I checked 14 boxes (for myself, if I included the kids' symptoms, it would be even more), the website states that having just one box checked from each of the two categories could indicate celiac...

many many thanks to Gluten-Free Girl's blog for the links to the quizzes!! Just spreading the word.

glutenized!

It's mostly over by now, but my oldest child and I had a definite gluten reaction a few days ago. Not sure what caused it. Certainly it was cross-contamination, but from what? I've been purchasing nuts from the bulk bins at the health food store all along and have never had this issue before, but that is the top suspect and I'll have to get jarred/canned nuts from now on. Bleh! They just aren't as good as those "organic free trade" high dollar nuts, but we can't afford the extra expense right now anyway. I originally suspected the taco shells (we get the Food Lion brand, had a reaction to the name brand ones every time), but DH reminded me that I was cranky and crazy before we ate those tacos. I have managed to cut our grocery bill by more than half!! And perhaps I got something that wasn't quite okay for us to eat in the process. I really don't know.

gluten-free cinnamon rolls!

yeah, you read that correctly. Cinnamon rolls, indeed! slightly crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. Sometimes my family deserves sweet decadence for dinner. I have successfully made them twice now, so feel confident in sharing with you how I managed to do it.

dry ingredients:
One packet Chebe brand all purpose bread mix (the yellow one, not red).
one heaping 1/8 cup scoop of sorghum flour
one heaping 1/8 cup scoop of soya powder
one rounded tablespoon baking powder

wet ingredients:
two eggs
some oil (gosh, I don't know how much) 1/4 cup probably

in 1/2 cup hot water, mix in one package of rapid-rize yeast and two rounded tablespoons brown sugar, let it sit and get fluffy while you beat the eggs and oil together

start mixing dry ingredients listed above with the oily egg mixture
when that is nearly mixed together, add the yeasty sugar water (still warm)
mix it together (with your hands, works better) until consistent texture
do not overmix!
on a piece of wax paper, quickly flatten the dough to about 1/2 inch thick (maybe thinner, depends on how big a surface you have to work with).
let it rest just a minute or two
sprinkle on top of that, lots of brown sugar and a little cinnamon
roll it up into a log (the wax paper makes this easier)
slice the log with a knife and lay slices on cookie sheet.
cover and let rise while oven is heating to 375
cook until it smells done, or edges turn a medium shade of brown (I'd say it's probably about 20-25 minutes).

while that is baking, mix 1/2 stick of softened butter with some powdered sugar (I dunno, not more than one cup) and one capful vanilla extract. Ice the rolls while still hot out of the oven.

vanilla extract

I was asked by several different people recently what kind of vanilla I use in my cooking. It never occurred to me that the alcohol in the extract might not be gluten-free, but we have never reacted to it. I figure, if it had gluten, we'd know it by now (I use lots of vanilla in just about everything I make that is sweet). But my curiosity got the better of me and I emailed McCormick about their Pure Vanilla Extract (the brand I always use). Turns out there is no gluten in it, as I already knew, but it felt good to be validated (they use a "synthetic alcohol" instead, whatever that is). Not only that, but if their label doesn't have that allergy warning stating the product contains wheat, it is gluten-free. They call any sort of gluten "wheat" in their labelling. If a product has no ingredient warning, it is gluten-free. So there you have it! I did suggest they put the words "gluten-free" on the front label. If more companies did that it sure would save me lots of time in the grocery store. I'd be much more inclined to buy a product with the "gluten-free" label rather than taking the time to read the ingredient lists of all the other different choices.

dinner last night

my apologies in advance to our vegetarian friends...

we had a fabulous dinner last night! Even the kids had seconds, DH had thirds!! Seeing as how we are gluten-free and most everything we eat is made from scratch and all recipes must be adapted (those experiments are not always met with such enthusiasm), this gave me great joy and I have to share it with you all.

We had cornbread-battered deep-fried catfish nuggets and tossed salad. Such a simple dinner. I peeked inside Bittman's How to Cook Everything cookbook, but his batter did not call for eggs, and I knew milk alone wouldn't give me the southern-style crunchy batter I wanted. So I made it up instead. I took one egg, and twice that volume of milk (since we can't do beer anymore), beat it up well with a fork and set the fish in it to soak while the oil heated up. We still had some peanut oil from last Thanksgiving's fried turkey, so I used that rather than the olive oil I always cook with. Then, in a separate bowl I just mixed some cornmeal (we have never had a gluten-like reaction from Martha White Plain Cornmeal, even though it says on the label that it may be cross-contaminated with wheat) with some salt and pepper. Dipped the egg/milk soaked pieces of fish in the cornmeal and quickly fried until it was a lovely shade of golden brown. You gotta make sure the oil is almost hot enough to smoke (Bittman's cookbook says 375 degrees, but I couldn't find my thermometer), too cool and the batter falls off, too hot and your house is full of smoke. Do not overcook! YUMMMY!

gluten-free recipes I want to try

link Too bad rice flour is not an option for my family, and I try my best to make things with as little sugar as possible. I'll have to continue to experiment, but i love searching other people's recipes for new ideas. Generally, I use a combination of equal parts of the following: arrowroot flour/starch, quinoa flour, and soya powder. I always mix the dry and wet ingredients separately, then fold them together just until the dry gets wet all the way through (lumps are even more important when cooking without gluten). I have had okay results using Chebe all purpose bread mix in certain recipes (biscuits, pizza crust, etc), but should probably just purchase the tapioca flour and tapioca starch instead. I have perfected muffins and pancakes, and sometimes have made really great cookies through trial and error. But I can't really share my recipes because I don't measure anything exactly. I just make the mixture look right, and I cook it until it smells done.

not again!

The girls and I are sick. Not bad sick, but enough to make us all fussy and whiney. Started out as a little bit of tummy distress Saturday evening after the party, turned into full-blown poopage and even an itchy rash on younger DD's and my skin last night. It's got to be diet-related, but there's no way of knowing what exactly did it to us. There was the one family *accidentally* brought McDonald's crap into my kitchen and it may have caused a gluten cross-contamination issue at the party. The teff flour I decided to try recently might not agree with us. It might just be from eating way more sugar than our bodies are used to eating. DH thinks it's the juice, but I didn't have any. Sugar... it could be candida, but that rarely bothers my older child. Or maybe it's something else altogether, something new, or something we have been eating without issue all along that has just now decided to bother us because we ate more of it lately than usual. Hm... it could even be the vegan cheese (yuck!) I decided to try recently in an attempt to cut back on how much dairy we consume. Life was so much simpler before I started recognizing food sensitivities in myself and in my children. I could eat whatever I wanted and not feel any sicker than I always felt. It's not fair how getting healthier makes you notice when you aren't feeling well, when before it didn't bother me at all because I always felt bad. If it weren't for the major behavioral consequences of those food sensitivities in my oldest child, we'd still be eating anything and everything we want. UGH