Gluten Free Mom

2008 Celiac Conferences

Sorry I have been absent,

the "dog" has been biting at my rosebush (read the post below to understand) and sniped it completely to the ground,

in other words, my newly revised website that I spent hours on,

crashed,

disappeared,

vanished.

I am not a webmaster -

thankfully, living near Microsoft, I have friends who are,

and after a few (okay a lot of emails and calls), my website is back up.

Now, looking forward to 2008.

I have been collecting information on upcoming Celiac Conferences. 

I have heard they are wonderful places to connect with others with similar diet restrictions, extremely educational and you get to sample a lot of gluten free food.

Here is what I have found so far.

Please pass along any others you know of:

• April 3-6, 2008

"The Higher Truth of Health"
A Health Conference to Educate, Entertain
and Enlighten You Taos Convention Center   -    Taos, New Mexico
Brought to you by the Intestinal Health Institute
and Dr. Kenneth Fine

https://www.homepagetx.com/ihi/

• May 3, 2008

Celiac Disease Foundation presents its Annual Education Conference & Food Faire on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, California at the Moseley-Salvatori Conference Center.

http://www.celiac.org/newsEvents/conference2008.php

• May 9-11, 2008 

2008 VICTORIA CONFERENCE
T.G.I.F. The Gluten Intolerance Festival

The next national conference of the Canadian Celiac Association National to be held in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. May 9-11. 2008.    http://www.victoriaceliac.org/

• June 6 and 7, 2008

GIG Annual Education Conference  Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

From someone on ListServ:  You absolutely can't go wrong in attending the GIG National Education Conference in the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area.  The lineup of speakers is outstanding with almost all of the major researchers, doctors, cookbook authors in regards to celiac disease/gluten intolerance and the GF diet, and reps from the American Celiac Disease Alliance on top of that.  What more could you ask for?  We're also planning wonderful food and fun.  Come meet GF friends from all over the U.S.  Register at www.gluten.net 

• October 17-19, 2008

   

31st Annual CSA Conference in La Vista, Nebraska

http://www.csaceliacs.org/Conferences/2008AnnualCSAConference.php

• September 11 – 13, 2008

XIII International Celiac Disease Symposium 2008

The 13th World celiac meeting will take place in Amsterdam

• November 3, 2008

Children’s Hospital Celiac Conference in Columbus, Ohio with Dr. Fasano a Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine in Baltimore. He is Medical Director for the Center for Celiac Research at the University. 

  http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/gd/applications/controller.cfm?page=275&cid=94&type=1&CatID=3

It would be a great excuse to go to Amsterdam,

but I am leaning towards Victoria BC because it is close, beautiful and has lots of great GF dining options and

Dallas/TX because I have heard this is a great conference and I have lots of family in Texas.

Seattle Area Amazon Fresh

Living gluten free in Seattle just got a little easier.

Amazon has started a new service called Amazon Fresh.

It has an on-line grocery store with 704 gluten free items.

The service offers daytime delivery, local pick up or pre-dawn delivery that has your groceries waiting on your doorstep in the morning if you place an order by midnight the night before.

I am not sure why, but the bread we normally eat (Kinnikinnick White Sandwich) was actually cheaper from Amazon Fresh than from ordering it through the Kinnikinnick Website (not to mention shipping cost).

I love Seattle!

White Garlic Surprise Aioli and Sweet Potatoes

We try a lot of new recipes in my kitchen. 

Every once in a while we get a WOW response.

The following is the aioli that elicited that response and started my oldest daughter soliciting ballots for the name of it  (too much political talk at the dinner table lately).

Be warned, our gluten free kitchen is full of flavor.

We like our food to have a little kick.

This aioli is garlicky, white, with a hidden sweet punch, thus the name White Garlic Surprise.

Naturally casein free.

It would be really good on many things - with chicken, tostitos . . ..

But it is an excellent match for Sweet Potato French Fries. 

We served it as a side with marinated flank steak and for the vegetarian in my family, risotto.

Enough hype - here it is:

White Garlic Surprise Aioli

• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 t coarse kosher salt
• 1 cup mayonnaise (Best Foods is GF.  For a healthier version use Spectrum Canola Mayonnaise - or go half and half which is what we do)
• 2 T coarse-grained Dijon mustard (Annie's Naturals Organic Dijon Mustard is GF)
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1 T honey

Mince the garlic and mix with the salt, then mix in the remaining ingredients.

Store covered tightly in the refrigerator.

Serve as a side dip with Sweet Potato French Fries.

Sweet Potato French Fries

Slice the potato in half, then place the flat side down and make cuts across the back of the potato going the long way.  Flip these on their sides and cut in half to make them look like, you guessed it, french fries.  Sweet potatoes are a little tougher to cut so roll your sleeves up. 

You can fry them on the cook top in a deep pan but if are planning on eating french fries every so often, I would buy a deep fryer.  We started with an inexpensive fry daddy them moved up to DeLonghi Cool Touch Deluxe Deep Fryer. 

This fryer is pretty easy to clean and the basket rotates inside so the fries are evenly fried. 

Sweet potatoes should be fried at a slightly lower heat - I use 350 degrees.

With this fryer, you just set the temperature to 350, let it warm up, lower the basket and fry for 10 - 12 minutes.

We love these fries as a side dish to marinate flank steak.

Marinated Flank Steak

Sorry to all of the vegetarians out there, but we love these french fries as a side to marinated flank steak.

We have a vegetarian in our family as well.  She loves risotto and eats that in lieu of the steak.

This is a wonderful marinade and so easy - you cook it on the grill so there is very little clean up and it taste fabulous.

Plan a little in advance, it taste better after a night marinating in the refrigerator.

• 1/2 cup GF soy sauce (San-J Organic Tamari is GF)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 T white wine
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 T brown sugar
• 1 t fresh grated ginger (or a splash of Ginger Juice)
• 1-3 pound flank steak

Mix all ingredients except the steak.

Score the steak lightly with a fork on both sides.  Marinate in the refrigerator.  2-6 hours will work but overnight is best.   

Barbecue 6 inches from the heat, about 5 minutes per side.

www.glutenfreemom.com

I love the following.

It is from the blog of Curtis Ann Matlock.

She actually has lots of wonderful things to say,

but this one keeps popping back in my head:

I have a rosebush that my grandmother started from a twig she plucked from a bush at her mother’s home some sixty years ago.  When we sold my grandmother’s home, I dug up that very same bush and hauled it eighteen hundred miles to plant at my home, where it has flourished.

I keep starting new bushes from it, and last spring I took one of those little beginners a thousand miles to plant at my son’s new home. The small thing instantly began growing with pretty shoots and verdant green leaves, which son’s dog promptly chomped off.

Eventually the dog ate the entire bush– yes, thorns and all–right down to the ground! Now the dog is gone (She tended to want to chew on neighbors and delivery people, too, so a new home with a fence had to be found.) and, if you look closely at where the bush is planted, you can see the promise of green life stirring yet again.

That’s me and this blogging site. Each time I put forth a new piece of writing here, along comes life and chomps me right off.  Such is the way with any good endeavor, anything that is creative in nature. Resistance, Steven Pressfield names it in his book, The War of Art, saying that the more important the action is to our particular soul’s growth, the more Resistance we will encounter while we pursue it. He capitalizes Resistance, giving it personification.

There is always another chance…This thing called failure is not the falling down but staying down.   — Mary Pickford

The thing is to keep getting up and trying again. You will get somewhere, and very often it is far further and in a direction more grand than you ever imagined. My efforts at this blog have led me to decide to install a blog at my own url. Easy everyone said. Ha! But, oh, what an adventure! And often I think of that little rosebush, and smile.

So too it has been with my website, Gluten Free Mom.com. 

I would set aside a day to work on it, and no sooner did I sit down at my computer than the school would call to say one of my children was sick.

I would sit aside a week night to work on it, and my husband would have to stay at work late.

But I keep persisting (sometimes into late in the night) and here it is,

at least the introductory version.

My intent is only to help others - to freely share the wealth of information I continue to gather on the gluten free lifestyle.

My roses are anyone and everyone that I might help in the smallest way -

They make the most beautiful bouquet. 

This is just the introductory version - life does not stop so there is always more to come.

So, for now, here it is:

gluten free mom.com.

Nut Thins Milk Allergy Recall

For those who are casein free as well:

BACK TO NATURE FOODS COMPANY ISSUES ALLERGY ALERT ON UNDECLARED MILK PROTEIN IN BACK TO NATURE SESAME GINGER RICE THINS CRACKERS

Only Sesame Ginger Rice Thins Crackers with a "Best When Used By" date of 22FEB2008 are impacted

Madison, WI (December 10, 2007) – The Back to Nature Foods Company is recalling 13,800 boxes of Back to Nature Sesame Ginger Rice Thins Crackers with a “Best When Used By” date of 22FEB2008, because a small number of boxes may contain a milk ingredient, and no milk ingredients are declared on the label. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.

This product will expire on 22FEB2008. The company has voluntarily issued a nationwide recall to alert any milk-allergic consumers who may have the product at home. The Back to Nature Sesame Ginger Rice Thins Crackers with a “Best When Used By” date of 22FEB2008 were sold in retail grocery and health food stores.

The Back to Nature Sesame Ginger Rice Thins Crackers with a “Best When Used By” date of 22FEB2008 has a UPC code of 59283 10013 and comes in a 4 oz retail carton. No other varieties of Back to Nature Rice Thins or any other Back to Nature products are impacted by this recall.

Allergy tests confirmed the presence of milk in samples sent for testing after the company received one consumer report of an allergic reaction. The company is aggressively investigating the reason for this at the manufacturing facility.
The company has consulted with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the agency is aware of the company’s actions.

Consumers are advised not to consume the product and are asked to call 1-800-433-9361 for a full refund.

Kraft Allergy Alert