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Highlights from the January 25th Meeting
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Carol and Andrea want to thank you for the gift certificates Ellen Gwynn presented to us at the January meeting. Being part of this group is truly one of the most rewarding aspects of our job. Your thoughtfulness is much appreciated.
T-shirt
After adopting our new name, we decided we needed a T-shirt to go along with it. Anna Ashworth is heading up this project. Please see the design at the end of this newsletter. The design will be going on a light yellow/cream colored shirt. Cost per shirt will be $12.62. We would like to have these ready to distribute at our May 17 meeting. Anna will need to have all orders and money by April 5. If you would like to order a shirt, please contact Anna prior to April 5, or bring your order and money to the April 5th meeting. Make checks payable to Anna Ashworth. agashworth@aol.com (By the way, if we get a lot of orders, the price per T-shirt may be less than we expect. We plan to take any extra money that may come out of that and use it for a celiac related purpose.)
Did you know that in the year 2002 over 350 articles on celiac disease were published in the professional literature in the English language alone? Increasing awareness in the professional world will hopefully translate into more timely recognition of this disease!
- Enjoy Life Foods: This is a new company manufacturing gluten-free products. I visited their booth at a recent nutrition conference I attended—let me tell you they have the best gluten free bagels I have ever tasted! All of their products are free of gluten, wheat, dairy, casein, egg, soy, peanut, hydrogenated oil and artificial ingredients. Currently they manufacture several kinds of cookies, bagels, and snack bars. They aren’t available in stores locally yet, but you can visit their website www.enjoylifefoods.com or give them a call at 888.50.ENJOY.
- Last year Madelyn Smith conducted a workshop in Richmond on how to set up a gluten free communion in your church. As a result of attending that workshop, Anna Ashworth’s church will now be serving gluten free communion to everyone! It just goes to show how the work of one person can spread and have an impact on many others.
- Hungarian Bakery: If you haven’t had a chance to sample some of Katya’s creations, you are missing out. Katya is the owner of the Hungarian Bakery, which she operates out of her home. She makes wonderful gluten free baked goods including tortes, muffins, cakes, birthday cakes, cheesecake, cookies and more. She has a stand at the Charlottesville City Market every Saturday from April through October. You can also place orders year round by calling her at 434-973-8863.
- Gluten Free Beer: We have heard it exists, but many of you are now asking “WHERE!” Currently gluten free beer is only available in Europe. It is called Bi-Aglut. If anyone figures out how you can get it to the United States, let us know!
- Bob & Ruth's Gluten Free Dining and Travel Club: Bob and Ruth have several nice gluten-free getaways planned for this year including an Alaskan cruise in September. If you are interested in finding out what is on the schedule, contact Bob via email at bobolevy@erols.com or by phone at 410.486.0292.
- GIG: The annual GIG conference will be held June 6-8 in Denver, Colorado. Contact the Gluten Intolerance Group at www.gluten.net for more details, or call 206.246.6652.
- Whole Foods: In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, there exists a man named Lee Tobin. He works at Whole Foods where he makes the most wonderful brownies, cakes, scones, cookies, breads and much much more—Oh yeah I forgot to mention they are all gluten free and you could never even tell by tasting them!! Lee has had such success developing the gluten free bakery at the Chapel Hill store, that Whole Foods is considering starting a Bakehouse where they can make gluten free baked goods to distribute to other Whole Foods stores. If you visit the website below, you can see a picture of Lee and read more about his own story as a celiac and his role at Whole Foods. While you are there, be sure to send an email to Whole Foods’ corporate office letting them know your thoughts on starting a Bakehouse. You can do this directly on-line through the “contact us” section, or if you want to send snail mail, direct your letter to the following:
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
Research and Support Team
601 N. Lamar Suite 300
Austin, Texas 78703
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthinfo/gf_lee.html
- Crackers: Several members shared their top picks for gluten free crackers and snacks. Making the list this month are the following: Ener-G-Crackers, Casaba, and Blue Diamond Nut Thins. Another favorite are the Ener G Sesame Seed Pretzel Rings.
The University of Virginia Department of Internal Medicine Division of Endocrinology Presents:
The Osteoporosis & Metabolic Bone Disease Clinic
Accepting Patients with:
- Osteoporosis
- post-menopausal
- transplant-associated
- cancer-associated
- Calcium Metabolism
- hyper/hypoparthyroidism
- hyper and hypocalcemia
- Paget’s Disease
- Osteomalacia
- Osteopetrosis
- Osteogenesis Imperfecta
- Phosphate Metabolism
- Vitamin D Metabolism
When: Friday Afternoons
Location: The Northridge Facility (until July 2003, when it will move to The Fontaine Research Park)
Physician: Theresa A. Guise, M.D.
Specialist in: Endocrinology (Calcium and Bone Metabolism)
For an Appointment, Please Call:
Clinic: (434) 924-1825
Office: (434) 243-0305
From one of our members:
When I first started cooking gluten free foods it seemed so overwhelming. I would stand over the bread maker and watch to see if it really rose. I would try to follow all the directions out of Betty Hagman's books as she wrote it. I would cringe to think on top of the extra cost of my food that I should get an extra heavy-duty type mixer for my batters.
Then reality caught up with me and I had to continue my life and keep up with three children (including one that also has celiac and expects a comparable substitute for the things she sees her brothers eating). So I started doing things in a pinch of time, money and other dietary adjustments I have to make for myself that I was sure would ruin my loaf of bread, but I just had to try it anyway. And guess what? Everything I have tried so far has worked for me. Gluten-free bread is not temperamental or hard to figure out. It is rather forgiving and much easier than making regular bread. (I used to bake a lot of bread before I found out I had celiac so I know). Whether these things work for others or not, I will leave to them to try and report back to me or the group with warnings or recommendations, perhaps these things work only for me for some magical reason. But try it anyway and see if you like. I would love to know how it worked for you, and if you have more ideas of how to speed up and simplify your cooking!
1. I do not need a bread maker or a mixer for bread. I mix it up with a wooden spoon and it is easy (and less mess to clean up) because it is rather more like a thick batter than kneaded type dough anyway.
2. I do not need to let my bread rise twice - OR EVEN ONCE. I mix it up, spray a loaf pan with Pam spray, pour in the batter and bake. It rises fine while it is cooking. It does come out a bit lopsided in shape sometimes, but I think it did when I use to follow directions too and I am not trying to produce an item of beauty - I just want to eat it.
3. Soy upsets my stomach - including vegetable shortening, which is hydrogenated soy oil. So if the recipe calls for soy flour, I either substitute garfava bean flour, sorghum flour or I just leave it out and add a bit less water. As for the shortening, I just substitute an equal amount of canola oil. It works fine and is much better for you than hydrogenated oils anyway.
4. Milk upsets my stomach too and for a long time I was trying to substitute soy products, which I found out I had to drop because they bothered me too and then I found out that you can just leave the milk and milk powders out - I don't even try to add a substitute for the powders. This may not work for all recipes, but I haven't had a problem doing this with breads, muffins and cakes.
5. I only have two steps in mixing - I don't even read the directions any more. I do not do that part where the yeast and sugar and water have to be mixed separately and added gradually and all that. I just mix all the dry ingredients well - including the yeast. I throw the eggs, oil, vinegar and water (I use fairly hot tap water - but not boiling water), I mix it all together, pour it in the pan and that's it - two steps: mix dry stuff, add wet stuff and mix and that's it.
6. I DO sometimes have to adjust the amount of water to make it thin enough to stir like a batter -not thin like pancake or cake batter but a very thick batter - just a little looser than a dough consistency. But I do that without measuring - sometimes just adding water from the tap. Sometimes my batter comes out runnier and sometimes thicker, but always it is good anyway - not always exactly the same in the end, but satisfactory for my purposes.
7. I found out the texture and moisture level is much better if I don't bake it to its death. I am notoriously known for burning things and cooking them until they are petrified and I found out one day that if I bake the bread until it is just turning brown - instead of golden brown on top, it is incomparably better.
For those who want to produce a loaf that is consistent and always perfect, this isn't the way to go. But I think the easier and faster and easier to clean up the gluten free cooking is, the less overwhelming and burdensome it is - and the more positive you can feel about cooking gluten free. I experiment with different kinds of breads, but for most of the time when I am short of time I just use Betty Hagman's Tapioca Bread. It takes me ten minutes to mix it up this way and have it in the oven.
If you think baking your own bread is a hardship, think of it this way - it can actually be less trouble and take less time than when you use to make gluten pancakes out of the box. Unlike pancakes that have to be stood over and flipped and cooked individually, once our bread is mixed - the oven does the rest and we just come get it when it is done! I hope these hints help you. I have to go now. I smell my loaf baking and it makes me long for some bread and tea!
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