Gluten Free Mom

When company does not respect the rules of your Gluten Free Kitchen.

I am sitting here in my gluten free kitchen silently having a heart attack.  The issue is company that repeatedly ignores the rules of my gluten free kitchen.

While we are 95% gluten free, we do have some regular bagels and bread.  These are in our butler's pantry and mostly reserved for my none-gluten free kids to take to school in their lunch boxes.

Our kitchen has been gluten free for several years and our extended family has visited numerous times and been reminded of the rules repeatedly.  I offer an abundance of gluten free eating options.  In the past I have actually removed all wheat items from the kitchen, but I thought by now they surely understood the rules.   Our rules are the same as yours - separate utensils, all "contaminated" jams and cream cheeses are on the top shelf of the refrigerator and clearly labeled, wash hands after you touch the glutenous items etc.

This morning for breakfast I offered a wide assortment of gluten free items, Canadian bacon, fresh cantaloupe, chocolate chip muffins.  I am sitting here eating my buckwheat waffle as our company decides to make bagels. 

 Don't misunderstand, I am very happy that my company helps themselves to food.  I can only do so much serving and cleaning up. 

The decision to even eat the bagels was the first bump in the road - we eat this way everyday, so why can't they adjust for the few weeks each year they spend with us?

But it gets even worse.  As I am sitting here, I notice first that they grab the gluten free butter and smear it on the toast, then the gluten free jam.  I try to politely remind them of the contamination issues and re-label all the tubs they used to now say "Not gluten free."  Then my company proceeds to dip a spoon into the cantaloupe, touch it on the whole wheat bread plate and then dip it back in the cantaloupe (this happens several times).  Then before washing their hands they touch the glass cabinet, finger for some napkins while touching the salt and pepper shakers, run their hands over the handle on the refrigerator door . . ..

Maybe I am over-reacting.  Maybe it is just the stress of having extended family in the house for a little bit too long.  But come on, how hard is this to get!! 

So once again I turn to you my gluten free friends, because I know you will understand!  I honestly don't know what else to do other than hiding the glutenous items after everyone goes to bed tonight. 

How do you handle company and thank you for letting me vent in this somewhat non-conspicuous way!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie and more for Thanksgiving

I have been working on this post for the longest time and here it is almost Thanksgiving Eve and I am finally getting it typed.  I have started painting again and have been pulled away from the computer and back into my art studio - it is wonderful to be painting again, but I do feel a special tie to all of you and our gluten free community.

Hold the Wellshire Farms Chicken Nuggets - Tribune Article on Hidden Gluten Ingredients in food labeled Gluten Free

The Chicago Tribune has done some investigating and has found that food labeled gluten free, such as Wellshire Kids' Dinosaur Shapes Chicken Bites, actually contain gluten:

The Tribune recently bought the Chicken Bites at a Riverforest supermarket and sent the samples to one of the nation's leading food-allergy labs, at the University of Nebraska.  Both times, the lab found gluten. The item remains on shelves across the U.S.

The article future explained that:

The FDA doesn't define "gluten free," but generally "free" means a product contains none of the substance in question. The FDA has proposed adopting a 20 parts per million standard. In July, an international health commission recommended a similar standard.

The USDA, which has jurisdiction over meat products (including those below), has no policy specifically addressing "gluten-free" claims. The agency OKs labels before products go to market.

Gluten found in 'gluten-free' products

The Tribune bought three popular Wellshire Farms products advertised as "gluten free" and sent multiple samples to a lab for testing.

Chicken Bites: Tested at 204 parts per million and 260 ppm

Chicken Corn Dogs: Tested at 116 ppm and 2,200 ppm

Beef Corn Dogs: Tested at 191 ppm and 1,200 ppm

Wellshire Farms provided the Tribune with its own testing results, conducted in the spring. Their results showed: chicken nuggets tested at 200 ppm, chicken corn dogs 150 ppm, and beef corn dogs 120 ppm.

Follow this link for the rest of the article

The following Sunday they wrote a second article Whole Foods claims to use "good manufacturing practices" to seperate allergens. 

For the follow up article on "may contain" ingredients, follow this link.

Don't know about you but I found this to be highly disturbing!!   Regardless of labeling laws, everyone in the celiac community knows that the standard is 20 parts per million. 

Gluten Free and Casein Free Treats from Shabtai Bakery

  We have died and gone to gluten free and casein free heaven -

No compromising here.

The kids were arm-wrestling over these treats.

Shabtai-Gourmet Bakery, also known as Cinderella Sweets, is a dedicated gluten free bakery.  Better yet, they are also casein, lactose and soy free!! 

I was recently reading that according to the United States Department of Agriculture there are over 2000 gluten free products in the market place and over 800 new gluten free products were introduced in 2008!  That is a lot of sampling to do, but my type A personality likes to sample everything I can find in search of the best. 

While I so appreciate everyone who goes the extra step to make something gluten free, as we all know, just because something is gluten free does not necessarily mean it will be good.

So when the box from Shabtai arrived on my front porch (in record time I might add since we are in Seattle and it traveled all the way from New York), I opened it with somewhat trepidation hoping for greatness but with all expectations in check.  We bake a lot and we have repeatedly found that it is hard to get something that is as good as we can make at home.

The first item sampled was the Devils Food 7 Layer Cake - oh my goodness it was amazing!! 

First of all, it was something that I would never take the time to make - it was seven layers of thin cut chocolate cake separated by seven layer of the sweetest frosting.  The entire delight was frosted in that hard-chocolate frosting that they put on ding dongs (and that I have no idea how to make). 

As a matter of fact, it tasted a lot like what I remember ding dongs tasting like.  The Gluten Free Kid only ate maybe one or two ding dongs before going gluten free and my other two kids had never eaten them, but to me it tasted like a ding dong.  A gluten free, casein free ding dong!!  (As a matter of fact they make a product called the Ring Ting cupcakes which we will be ordering shortly).

I don't mean this in a bad way (even though to the super health conscious it may sound so), but if you, or your loved ones, have been crazing that processed really sweet chocolaty treat of our former lives, go order some right now!

As a side note, while we eat extremely healthy, I do think that indulging in these kinds of over the top sweet treats is the only way to survive being gluten free.  So that you, or our kids, do not feel constantly deprived you have to spend the extra money or the extra time in the kitchen, and eat your hearts content of Ring Dings (on occasion).  The kids in my daughter's class actually thought she was cheating on her diet when she ate the last few bites of our treat at school the next day. 

The next treat that we sampled was the Fudge Brownie - okay I have to make a confession here.

It was my son's 6th birthday on Monday.  I have made a home made birthday cake for every birthday we have celebrated since going gluten free, and my family has grown to love these cakes and this tradition.   But we had just had a Halloween party, a soccer party and a birthday party (we celebrate birthday's with friends with make-your-own sundaes), everyone in my family was a little sniffly from a cold, and I was down right exhausted. 

How does this relate to the brownie?  I pulled the Fudge Brownie from Shabtai out of the freezer, placed it on our special birthday plate, decorated it with Betty Crocker frosting in the tube, added some Star Wars figures, cute candles and . . . well you can see the result on his face in the photo below.

He loved the cake, the other kids were jealous of it, and it was so quick and easy.  Oh, and least we forget, so amazingly good tasting - moist, super sweet, that kind of over-the-top richness that leaves your teeth hurting a little. 

We still have a few goodies left in our box to try.  Tonight we are transforming the Lady Fingers into Tiramisu.  Yes, tiramisu.  I am a pretty adventurous cook these days, but would not have taken on the challenge of making tiramisu without the pre-made gluten free Lady Fingers which are an essential ingredient.

Here is the recipe for Gluten Free Tiramisu

*4 large eggs, separated

*8 ounces mascarpone cheese (To make your own casein free substitute try this basic dairy free cheese recipe  I have to admit I have not tried this dairy free yet)

*1 cup espresso or very strong coffee

*3 teaspoons brandy

*24 gluten free lady fingers from Shabtai

*cocoa powder

In a large bowl beat sugar and egg yolks well until they are a pale yellow creamy color.  Since these eggs are not cooked, use pasteurized eggs or pasteurize them yourself. 

Add mascarpone and beat until JUST mixed.

In a small bowl beat pasteurized egg whites until stiff peaks are formed.

Fold into mascarpone mixture.

In another small bowl combine espresso and liqueur           .

With a pastry brush, brush cookies with the espresso/liqueur mixture.  Place a layer in the bottom of an 8x8-inch deep glass casserole dish.

Cover with half the cheese mixture.

Top that with another layer of brushed cookies and add remaining cheese.

Sprinkle with cocoa and some chocolate curls for an extra touch. 

Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, if you have the time six hours is even better. 

I have two more great things to say about Shabtai; first, all gluten free food is expensive, but for the quality of the baked goods, Shabtai's prices are reasonable.  The 7 layer cake was almost $9.00.

Secondly, the prices are made even more reasonable by the fact they are now offering free shipping to anywhere in the continental United States.

So try it and let us know what you think. 
 

New Research on Pharmaceutical Treatment of Celiac Disease

Thought some of you may be interested in this.  Received it from the Celiac Disease Foundation today.  What could this mean to us?

SAN CARLOS, Calif., October 29, 2008

- Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced proof of concept in a Phase 1 Trial of ALV003, an oral protease therapy in development to detoxify gluten, intended for use by patients with celiac disease.  The trial results confirmed that single doses of up to 1,800 mg of ALV003 were safe and tolerable in healthy volunteers.  Doses at the 300 mg level achieved up to a 96% reduction of gluten in a meal in the stomach at 30 minutes, and were well tolerated by patients with celiac disease.  In addition, doses as low as 100 mg were shown to be biologically active in degrading gluten in the stomach.  Based on these results, Alvine plans to initiate Phase 1/2a multidose trials in early 2009.

"The outcome of the Phase 1 Trial of ALV003 is a major step toward providing people with celiac disease a better quality of life, as there are currently no approved pharmaceutical therapies available," said Dr. Ciarán P. Kelly, Medical Director of the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. "Given the difficulty of following a strict gluten free diet, and the potentially serious health consequences of gluten exposure, there is a great medical need for ALV003 and other new therapies targeting celiac disease."
In addition to reporting Phase 1 results today, Alvine presented data in October, 2008 at the United European Gastroenterology Week conference in Vienna, Austria from a study in patients with celiac disease. The study demonstrated that patients with celiac disease who ingested gluten pre-treated with ALV003 showed elimination of peripheral gluten specific reactive T cells as measured by ELISpot responses. The study, conducted at the Alfred Hospital and Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia, suggests that a gluten specific ELISpot response may be a useful test for assessing the effectiveness of therapeutics in subjects with celiac disease.

"Results from these studies support the use of ALV003 as a drug to be taken with meals to address unintentional gluten exposure.  In addition, the ELISpot study provides evidence that treatment of gluten with ALV003 may result in a reduction in the immune response to gluten in patients with celiac disease," said Dr. Peter H. R. Green, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University.  "These results provide a strong rationale to advance the clinical development of this compound as a treatment for celiac disease."

About ALV003
ALV003 is an orally administered combination of two proteases engineered to degrade gluten into non-immunotoxic fragments, by targeting the glutamine and proline residues that are common in gluten.  ALV003 consists of a glutamine specific cysteine protease (EP-B2) and a proline specific prolyl endopeptidase (PEP). 

About Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is the most common hereditary autoimmune disease with prevalence as high as 2% in the U.S. and E.U.  Celiac disease is triggered by the ingestion of gluten in genetically susceptible individuals.  Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat, rye, and barley, and is one of the most common food additives in the human diet.   Patients with celiac disease mount an immune response to gluten and gluten fragments, resulting in systemic immune mediated damage in the gut and other organs.  Gluten ingestion can be associated with symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, constipation and rash.  Complications of celiac disease can include osteoporosis, anemia, dermatitis, weight loss, diabetes, central nervous system conditions, other autoimmune diseases and malignancies.  The only available option for individuals diagnosed with celiac disease is a life-long adherence to a strict gluten-free diet, which is difficult to follow. 

About Alvine
Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing therapeutics for autoimmune/gastrointestinal diseases. Alvine's lead product candidate, ALV003, is a combination protease engineered to degrade gluten, and is being developed to treat patients with celiac disease.  For additional information about the company, please visit

www.alvinepharma.com.