One thing I am a sucker for is dessert. There are meals where I just want to get the main course finished so I can jump into dessert. The credit for this dessert goes to two great companies that produce gluten free products with amazing flavor and quality.

Brownie: The Gluten-Free Pantry Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix

The brownies came out amazing and you would not know they were gluten free. I’m actually eating my second helping as I write this. The batch we made is chewy and rich in chocolate flavor.

Ice Cream: Edy’s Slow Churned Vanilla Ice Cream

Not only is the vanilla ice cream gluten-free but it is also nut-free (another of my son’s allergies). When we made the move to gluten free we did a little research testing ice creams. In my opinion, Edy’s is one of the top brands on the market. Other Slow Churned flavors that are gluten-free and nut-free include: Chocolate, Caramel Delight, Coffee, Mint Chocolate Chip and Strawberry. Always check the label before making your decision because product ingredients sometimes change. The ice cream is made in equipment that is also used to process peanut products.

There were some highs and lows today. The lows were when Tom and I went to the “1st Annual Chris Doherty Ping Pong Tournament”. Naturally we expected some level of disorganization and we were not disappointed. They announced that 150 participants had signed up for the tournament and obviously they were a little shocked by the turn out. The tournament began and there were games being played by each age bracket including the “Open”. We signed up in the Open bracket and after watching other players in the bracket we realized with went in a bit over our heads. Those players were very good. Anyway, we sat and waited to play while our bracket was slowly being neglected so we left before either of us got to play…three hours later. Other players were upset with the organization of the event but hopefully it will be better planned next time. Ok, enough of that rant…

Supper club was at the Rootes house this month and it was the high of the day. Sue attempted to make rice in the crock pot but for whatever reason it was not done by the time we had to leave. I dropped Sue and the boys off at the Rootes and ran to the nearest Chinese food joint to get some rice…3 quarts of rice. Bobby Jo put together a great meal of tacos, southwestern chicken soup and margaritas. Annette brought chips, salsa and taco fixings. Elisa made some cupcakes decorated with icing in the Mexican flag colors. Sue made up a sour cream dip for chips and some ice cream cupcakes for dessert.

Following the meal we went for a walk down an extra secret path from the Rootes home that led to the area high school’s outdoor basketball court. After almost being run down by a rogue 4-wheeler we played games of four square, P.I.G and some Tip-in game I was not familiar with. Oddly enough we never broke into our customary rounds of Knock-out. Everyone seemed to be gearing down for the evening so we headed back to the house for a little dessert and discussion. Nathaniel and Bobby Jo were great hosts and Supper Club was another success.

Kids playing in the sandbox. Hannah not keen on the paparazzi.

Tom averting his eyes as he plates up.

Elisa and Chuck conducting a soccer clinic.

A little chaos at the high school hoops. Tom, are you playing defense in a game of P.I.G.?

Sometimes we need a mortality check. Just a wake up call so we know there are things bigger than us and we are not going to be here forever. A few years ago my sister-in-law Pauline was diagnosed with cancer. Pauline is thirty five years old…the same age as me. Her recent prognosis is that she only has a handful of months left with us. You can read her story at our store Beads and Quilts – Pauline’s Story.

We all like to think that we are in difficult situations each day but I can not imagine being in the same situation as Pauline. Since she was diagnosed I sometimes vicariously put myself in her position and it almost brings me to tears thinking about all the things I might miss. Things like my boys growing up, growing old with my wife and enjoying some of my ‘golden’ years. When you are young it is difficult to digest such a situation.

With Pauline’s guidance we developed a bracelet that shows the continued “Hope” Pauline and our family members have that she will overcome the cancer. All profits and donations from the bracelet will go directly to the Pauline Benefit Fund that will be used by the family for medical expenses and other needs. See Pauline’s “Hope” Bracelet at our store. The bracelet would make a great Mother’s Day gift.

We thank you for your prayers and any contributions you can make.

A great mid-morning or afternoon snack these Gluten Free Granola Bars really hit the spot. It really is a great combination of ingredients that gives you a healthy dose of energy between meals. We used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free flour, oats and farina which are staples for almost all of our baking.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats
• 1 1/2 Cups Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour
• 1/4 Cup Bob’s Red Mill Creamy Brown Rice Farina
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2/3 Cup Applesauce
• 1 Cup of Apple Juice
• 1/4 Cup of Canola Oil
• 1 tsp of Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Cup of Raisins
• 3/4 Cup of Enjoy Life Foods Gluten-Free Chocolate Chips

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375
2. Mix dry ingredients together (oats, brown rice farina, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt)
3. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients (applesauce, apple juice, oil and vanilla)
4. Mix both the dry and wet ingredients while adding the raisins
5. Pour into a greased 9″ by 13″ cake pan
6. Place pan in oven for about 30 minutes
7. Take out of oven and place on a cooling rack
8. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave (in a microwave safe dish) and pour over granola bars in pan
9. Cut the bars and enjoy. *Goes great with ice cream.

Sue put this spaghetti Alfredo with meatballs dish together last night. The recipes and ingredients came from a few different resources but once joined the meal had great flavor and was very filling.

Pasta: Tinkyada Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti

These noodles are thick and very hearty with a flavor that is second to none. Follow the directions on the pack and be sure to work out any clumps before straining.

Alfredo: Mayacamas Alfredo Sauce Mix

I’ll admit that I was a little reluctant to try Alfredo sauce from a packet. Spending much of my career as a cook in a number of restaurants I only ever had homemade Alfredo. This sauce from Mayacamas has incredible flavor and compliments the pasta perfectly.

Meatballs: Karina’s Kitchen Spaghetti and Meatballs

The general idea of the meatball recipe came from Karina’s Kitchen. I’m sure you could follow this recipe to the ‘t’ and it would be great but we made some modifications for our needs. We used only ground beef, substituted more molasses in place of the ketchup and we used powdered seasonings in place of the fresh cut onions and garlic. You can experiment with ingredients and quantities to fit your cooking style or mood. Our meatballs came out sweet (molasses) but complimented the Alfredo and pasta very well.

Finishing Touches:
We topped the dish off with sauted green beans with garlic and fresh grated Locatelli cheese (get it from your local Italian food shop).

We have breakfast for dinner on average about once a week. These waffles are one item that is requested regularly. You can top them with butter, strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream and/or ice cream.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour
• 2 Tbls Sugar
• 1 Tbls Barkat Gluten-Free Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 3/4 Cups Milk
• 6 Tbls Vegetable Oil
• 2 Large Eggs

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients and blend until smooth
2. Pour approx. 1/2 Cup of batter onto waffle iron surface. (*waffle iron settings may need to be adjusted for crisp waffles)
3. Plate cooked waffle and top with syrup, fruit, whipped cream or chocolate

With the proliferation of applications that do something with Twitter most people do not even log into their Twitter account directly though the web site anymore. Early desktop applications have been getting better and new applications are being stuffed with features. Most are now running on the popular Adobe Air platform and most do very similar things with your tweets. Which application is right for you?

TweetDeck
TweetDeck, in my opinion, is the best desktop application for managing your Twitter addiction account. With TweetDeck you organize those you follow into “groups”. These groups make it easier to follow a particular topic without the tweets being intermingled with the tweets of other people you follow. Say you have a “tech” group and you designated a few of the tech savvy people into that group. When they make updates, their tweets will go into the tech group column where you can quickly scan through that topic. The TweetDeck application just rolled out a new update to incorporate Facebook feeds into the mix. With the addition of Facebook you can now have a column that collects you friend’s Facebook status while giving you the opportunity to update your own status. Other nifty additions to make both Twitter and Facebook mesh, you can “tweet” someones Facebook status or update your Twitter and Facebook status all at once. The TweetDeck application is my personal favorite at the moment for its ease of use, slick layout and in depth feature set.

Seesmic Desktop
Seesmic’s Desktop application is the new kid on the block for your tweeting needs. While still in “Preview Release” Seesmic’s offering seems like a stripped down version of TweetDeck…so far. To organize your follower’s tweets you create “User Lists” similar to TweetDeck’s groups. As the application stands now I am not impressed with its feature set and believe their interface could use some work. As of this writing I could not add new followers after a search for particular topics. There are also iconic buttons that do not have tool tips to explain what they do. I like the effort so far by Seesmic and hope when the application is ready for the full release that it will be able to compete with TweetDeck. I look forward to giving it a good run through when it’s fully released.

Seesmic Twhirl
This is another Seesmic desktop tweeting application and it is a great solution for those not needing to organize your followers. It is very simple to use and has just enough features to keep you reading and tweeting in style. This is kind of an odd observation but I almost feel like I am using an IM client when using Twhirl…in a good way.

TwitterFox
While not a desktop application TwitterFox is a great extension for the Firefox browser. TwitterFox offers you the essentials for following your followers and tweeting when you need to. It’s a simple install and once you log in there’s nothing more to setup. I recommend it for your quick tweeting fixes.

One disadvantage practically all Twitter applications have is they can be extremely disruptive if you happen to be doing work and trying to passively keep up. All of the applications have “dings” and pop-ups signifying new tweets and unless you turn them off you will find yourself halting work and skimming through new tweets every couple minutes.

There are a number of “tweeting” applications that work with the iPhone, iPod Touch and other browsers. I just touched on ones that I have experience using. It really is going to be a matter of choosing the application that suits your needs.

I really knew nothing about gluten or eating “gluten free”. When my son Ryan was diagnosed with a gluten allergy we immediately started research on the web. Thankfully there were a number of sites that had information and links to alternate foods we could try. Look for some resource links at the end of this post.

I worked in food service for eleven years, some as a cook and some as a manager. Throughout my career I have come up against others with dietary requirements. One of the most common requirements was a vegetarian diet. I never had someone require a gluten free diet.

There was a point where I had to limit my diet because my gallbladder was giving me trouble. For a few months I had to avoid fatty foods until my gallbladder calmed down so it could be removed. After that I got to enjoy the foods I had to avoid and for the most part felt great. So why did I just recently change to a gluten free diet?

1. It’s Healthy -
When you embark on a gluten free diet the foods you replace are usually much healthier. Breads and other baked goods contain lots of white flour which is generally an unhealthy and cheap way to produce these products. Gluten free breads are made with healthy flours such as white rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch among others. On a gluten free diet you tend to eat more fruits and vegetables as your snacks and fillers during meals. We already eat too few of these so why not take advantage of the opportunity to introduce more into our diet. Another healthy plus is you start paying attention to labels more. With all the quick and easy meals out there now people forget to be health conscious with their choices. In addition to removing gluten you can also focus on reducing things like sodium and fat in your diet.

2. Family Members Must Do It Why Not you? –
If you have a family member that is on a gluten free diet for whatever reason, why not jump in and try it yourself? This is the way I started with the diet. My son has been on the diet for a few years and my wife and I made the decision to give it a try for a week to better understand what he goes through. We found that it is easier for us to just cook a complete gluten free dish than two separate dishes each meal. Since making the change it seems to have brought our family even closer. There is no long a disconnect we had by eating foods in front of Ryan that he may never get to eat.

3. Cooking is an Adventure -
When Ryan was on the gluten free diet himself he would stick to his ‘old stand-by’ meals of fluffer nutters with ricemellow and soy nut butter on tapioca loaf. Since the family made the move to gluten free we have been experimenting with numerous recipes. We first had to filter through ingredients that do not contain gluten. Once we had our list we got recipe ideas from magazines, cookbooks and websites. We are continuously adding the recipes we create or find to this blog under the tag Gluten Free. Not only have we created some great tasting foods but we have been creating a small library of foods everyone in the house loves.

Overall, going gluten free has been an easy transition for us. Over the past few weeks I have been feeling better and lost a few pounds in the process(not that I need to). One thing to be conscious of is to make sure you get your vitamins and minerals. As was said earlier you will and should eat more fruits and vegetables in addition to varying your diet. With so many great recipes coming to the web daily your meals should be the equivalent of non-gluten free in taste but healthier.

Resources:
Gluten Free Mall – Great place to get all the ingredients you need for healthy gluten free meals.

The Gluten Free Mommy – An assortment of great recipes that have never failed us.

Ener-G Foods – Wonderful product list of gluten free breads, cookies, pastas and more.

Our local grocery store had some turkey sausage that was completely allergen free for my son including gluten.

We used Barkat Animal Shapes Gluten-Free Pasta as the pasta which came out a perfect al dente. The feature of the meal though was the turkey sausage. The flavor it delivered to the dish made your mouth consistently water for another bite. We removed the casing from the sausage and cooked it up in a frying pan with some diced onions.

To plate it up just put a bed of pasta on the plate, spoon the turkey sausage and onion mixture on top and cover with Pecorino Romano cheese. A very flavorful and filling dish.

We are known to frequently have breakfast for dinner. Eggs, French toast and sometimes cereal when we are not feeling up for spending too much time in the kitchen. This Broccoli Cheese Quiche recipe turned out amazing. This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 large crown of broccoli chopped
• 3 potatoes chopped small
• 1/4 tsp salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• 2 Tablespoons shredded parmesan

Directions
Sauté onion in the olive oil. Partially cook the potatoes in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Add broccoli, potatoes, salt, pepper and garlic to the sautéd onions and cook for approx. 5-7 minutes. Mix eggs, milk, cheddar cheese and parsley in a bowl. Spray a 9 inch pie dish with cooking spray. Spread potato and broccoli mixture in the bottom of the dish. Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and broccoli. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Optional: You may wish to add chopped ham or sausage for an even more hearty meal.