Gluten-free Pumpkin Pie recipe!

Happy Halloween!

We enjoyed a successful GF pie last night, replete with whipped cream and good company. The following recipe was enough for one large pie and one small one (see small one in photos). We used our CSA pumpkin (thanks, Greensgrow!)

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups white rice flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
4 oz. unsalted butter (1 stick)
pinch sea salt
1/4 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract
1 1/2 T honey
few t ice water as needed

mix together flour, almonds and salt. cut in butter. add extracts and honey, ice water till it holds together -- it will be a little crumbly. wrap and chill for an hour.

preheat oven to 425. press into pie pan(s). try to keep it even and not too thick. (you could try rolling it out between two sheets of wax paper and patch it if it falls apart.)

blend together:
2 eggs
1 lb cooked pureed pumpkin
1 cup milk
2 T melted butter
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup or a mixture (I used a mix and slightly more than 1/2 c.)
1 T molasses
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/4 t mace
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t sea salt

pour into pie shell(s). bake 10 mins, then turn oven down to 350 and bake another 30-40 mins, or until firm to the touch.

serve with your favorite topping! enjoy...

antibiotics over-prescription and adult-onset allergies

Besides over-prescription of antibiotics in childhood leading to allergies/asthma/eczema in adulthood, the way that food is grown and processed in our country is another contributor to wheat allergy and gluten intolerance. (check out Michael Pollan's books: http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php)
Interestingly, friends from overseas come to the States and can't tolerate the white flour here; it seems that a croissant or baguette in France is made from a better flour because of the different growing methods and processing/storage of wheat over there as opposed to what happens here in the U.S. And vice-versa: I can almost tolerate gluten and wheat in the EU.

So however much penicillin I took for ear infections and tonsillitis as a child is only part of the saga. Nowadays for example, homeopaths try things like taking dairy out of the diet for a child with an ear infection -- and the infection can clear without antibiotics. Dairy creates mucus whether you're allergic to it or not... but if you are reacting to different foods that you eat daily, the process of chewing and swallowing that food irritates the inner ear and sinuses on the way down. Then you get a cold and it all goes haywire; take the allergen(s) out of the mix, and the reaction goes down and hopefully that helps the body fight off the cold and ensuing infection on its own.

Last February I had a sinus infection and then an ear infection and ruptured ear drum--!? And then about a month of fluid behind both ears…what my homeopath had to say about my experience was that since I changed my diet (no gluten, dairy on a rotational basis - once every four days), I then had this illness that was just like in childhood but worse, like a regression. So I was having I guess a "healing crisis." I have heard this term before, but actually experiencing it on multiple levels over the last year has been very enlightening.

And the other part of the story in this multi-faceted problem, not just for me but for the general population, is the fact that antibiotics wipe out intestinal flora that we need to help our immune system and to fight allergens: wipe out the good flora and the bad flourish. It is really frightening how the medical world hands out so many pharmaceuticals as band-aids instead of getting to the root of people's problems. These band-aids cause even more problems--I am a walking example of this. We are left to wonder in my case: what if I didn't take all those antibiotics and just tried removing dairy and/or wheat? Yay, modern medicine.

Memphis Tap Room photo doc

We had a great time at the Memphis Tap Room in Philly a coupla weeks ago.

They have a gluten-free menu and two different GF beers, as well as wine and cider.
Totally reasonable prices as far as bar food goes, and also it's surprisingly healthy and good as far as bar food goes, for that matter.

Thank you, Memphis Tap Room!

Memphis Tap Room introduces G-F Menu and G-F Beer!

Menu Here!

http://www.memphistaproom.com/images/MemphisTaproom_gluten_free.pdf

Looks really reasonable, and if you have any questions about the menu, you can email them and they'll talk to the chef and get back to you about ingredients! It really is amazing to not have to ask a lot of embarrassing questions of your server on the spot; instead, you can feel secure ordering anything from this menu! Yay!

For beverages, they have Lake Front New Grist gluten-free beer, cider and wine! Woohoo!

We are going there tonight, so look for a photo-documented update soon!

For Philadelphians, they are located at the corner of Memphis and E Cumberland Sts.

Top Ten Favorite GF Foods and Beverages

Here are 10 foods and drinks that you can consume on the gluten-free diet that make life nicer:

1. Green's Gluten-Free Beer
http://www.glutenfreebeers.co.uk/
"Endeavor" was the closest thing to a Guinness I have had in a long time!

2. Nature's Path Buckwheat Wild Berry or Homestyle gluten-free frozen waffles
http://www.naturespath.com/products/waffles/nature_s_path_foods/buckwheat_waffles
There hasn't been any other breakfast for some time...I might have a small problem!

3. Whole Foods has a line of GF boxed baking mixes: things like pizza crust (also makes nice baguettes), brownies, pancakes and more! Good if you're in a hurry and don't want to try a recipe from scratch.

4. Pocono Cream of buckwheat hot cereal - the breakfast of champions (when I was sugar-free on the anti-candida diet, I ate this every morning with a spoonful of coconut oil swirled in, splash of almond milk and sprinkled with milled flax seeds and cacao powder. I still really like it this way even now.)

5. Glutino sesame pretzels - um, pretzels?!

6. Gluten-free Bakehouse Prairie Bread (makes really good French toast)

7. Food for Life Millet or Raisin Pecan bread (in the frozen section)

8. Sesmark Sesame Rice Thins - the perfect cracker substitute

9. Mochi - all flavors, all the time

10. Tinkyada rice pasta - spinach spaghetti rules!
http://www.tinkyada.com/
Honestly, you can serve this pasta to wheat-eaters and they'd never know!

ENJOY!

Living Gluten-Free, Year One

Hello and welcome to Goat City!

I have started my first blog in hopes that it may help people around the world find health and happiness through their gluten-free diets. I am planning on posting some tried-and-true recipes and menu ideas soon, as well as links to gluten-free beers and other people's g-f blogs.

My Story:

I started on this journey to try to stop using steroid creams and get rid of my oozing itchy skin rash through diet on January 1, 2007. I was told it was eczema by one doc and dermatitis by another--whatever it was, I wanted to get rid of it once and for all. Someone else's blog (that I will try to find and link to!) clued me into the anti-candida diet helping with her eczema. I started my elimination diet (very harshly I might add) and thought I would do it for 30-40 days and see if it helped. I eliminated all white carbs, sugars, fruit, alcohol, and fermented foods. It was extreme, extremely difficult and was a shock to my system. I started reacting to anything that had been ground into a flour (corn chips, mochi). I had small very itchy hives on my trunk (new symptom). I was cranky. I then saw a homeopath about 30 days into it, who had me add in some supplements, digestive enzymes and probiotics (all of it REALLY helped), and switch to bottled water instead of Brita'd Philadelphia city water, and had me stay on almost the same diet, rotating in either dairy, soy and wheat every four days. I was still rashy in April '07, four months in. I was finally almost rash-free (and almost gluten-free) in August '07. I let go forever of trying to add gluten into my diet in November '07.
If I had to do it all over again, I would:

1. Get tested for Celiac Disease and wheat allergy BEFORE going gluten-free.
2. Seek the advice of a doctor, homeopath, naturopath &/or nutritionist to help you with your personal plan based on your specific symptoms.
3. Eliminate things one at a time and slowly (not all at once), and then do the rotation diet. Then record your symptoms for the 24-48 hour period after you add the food in question back in once every four days.

Dr. Nicole Egenberger at Remede Naturopathics in NYC really helped me! It was worth every penny. I highly recommend taking charge of your own health and seeing someone like her, and don't take what your M.D. says as the bottom line. When you refuse meds and tell your M.D. that you'll change your diet, they mark down on your chart that you're going to "try lifestyle changes". Well, they couldn't be more right on. I changed my lifestyle and got rid of my Dermatitis Herpetiformis in eight months, but using steroid creams while eating gluten for five or more years didn't work at all: it always came back.
Gluten-free eleven months/DH-free for one year and two months
October 1, 2008