Saturday May 29th - bake sale 5 Regent St - Glebe Garage sale

Pick up your favourite goodies. Brownies, French puffs, lemon bread, chocolate cupcakes, the best carrot cake the world has ever known, same for the orange cake, sugar cookies, ginger snaps. Pre-order as we expect to sell out. Prices see previous post. See you there.

bake sale results - like WOW

We did amazing at the bakesale in Hintonberg on Mother's Day despite freezing temperatures. CBC radio host boasted the lemon bread as the best she had ever tasted. Big news was that we did not advertise the products as being gluten free. For those that would have known, there was a spot at the bottom of the menu that said: "mastering the art of g/f cooking" and the blog below it. A few people were actually jumping for joy that all of the yummies were gluten free and nut free. We had stuff for those vegan and those dairy free as well. All met with tremendous success and we sold out of literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of baked items in a mere four hours. Thank you to all!!!! Next venue: Main St. Farmer's Market - Saturday May 22. See you there. Pre-order with our email link. Will post the menu soon.

First Gluten-Free Bake Sale

For the first time ever I am going to be at the Ottawa - Parkdale Market selling baked goods:

"In the past ArtsPark has been visited by more than 3000 people each year. This year ArtsPark will be held once again at the Parkdale Market Park on May 9th (Mother’s Day) from 10:00-4:00. It will highlight the best of the Hintonburg QUAD arts district, including an invitational art show, children’s theatre and art activities, poetry, craft and food vendors and performance by local musicians."

The menu:

brownies $2.sm. or $3.lg.
lemon bread $2. slice
ginger snap cookies $.50
chocolate chip cookies $1.50
sugar cookies $1.
carrot cake with cream cheese icing $3.
vegan chocolate cupcakes with chocolate glaze $2.50

If you are planning on buying more than one item, please bring a container as this is the first time and we are not sure what to expect as far as sales. I gaurantee you they will be the best of anything you have ever tasted and rival any wheat version of the same. A sign up sheet will be available for news letters, notices of the release of the up and coming cookbook and cooking classes and to anyone who is interested in having baking done for them on a regular basis. See you there!!!

Cooking Course April 19th, 2010

6-8 weeks of fabulous gluten free cooking. Each Monday from 7:00 - 9:30pm. April 19th start. To register contact Susan at 613-276-4462 or send your request to Susan at pce@magma.ca

Course covers everything you could ever need to know about gluten-free cooking. Quiche crust and cakes, cookies, pizza, healthy bread crumb substitutes, white sauce, gravies, etc. New recipes each session. Healthy flours and the importance of nutritionally boosting your baking, etc. Great for new Celiac's, friends of Celiac's, any Celiac and anyone interested in a wheat free, gluten-free lifestyle.

Note:
At the moment we are at 3 people and 6 classes. If we can get 4 people I will do 8 classes. Cost is $200. for the entire course including food costs.

April, 2010 - Cooking Course Registration

Newly Diagnosed??

Don't panic. Think of this as an adventure.

If I had to do it all over again from scratch I would make a list of all the whole foods I love and get lots of them in the house. Dried figs, almonds, strawberries, blueberries, cheeses, etc. I would then sort of do a cleanse and eat meals that were simple at first to let my body experience the joy of not having to process a lot of foods it has been processing that have been toxic to it.

I would make sure my meals had really yummy things in them like fresh herbs, sweet potatoes, squash, fresh fish, seafood, yummy steak, chicken, salads with homemade vinaigrettes. Adding ham and chicken and cheese to a salad for lunch makes it hearty and filling for instance...you can take that anywhere. Corn pasta is the best tasting to me, or the tinkiyada brown rice brand.

If I wanted a dessert I would do a flan/creme caramel/creme brule, flourless chocolate cake.
Feel better about being diagnosed now because gluten-free over took whole grains as the leading growth market in food production last year and there is lots available now that was not even 2 or 3 years ago. Relief is in sight.

Go to www.celiac.org as they have a list of things that you can and can not eat. Ketchup is still okay but if you have any French's mustard in the fridge -toss it out. Mustard has hidden gluten in most cases. Maille's Dijon is an acceptable choice. Anything McCormack's puts their name on will tell you if it has gluten or not. Toss out your soy sauce and get one that does not list wheat as an ingredient. Oats you will have to get in a health food store and must be labeled gluten-free - they are rotated in crop growing with gluten crops and seeds are left over in the harvesting that contaminates them. Potato starch makes a great thickener for gravies (use it like you would corn starch - it has better flavour and is a more stable product) and soups.

Buying store bought items can be expensive and disappointing for flavour - although as I mentioned things are getting better. I resent personally having to buy mixes when I never bought them before. Between taste, nutritional content (all those rice/tapioca/corn products have little nutritional value) and cost I have spent 6 years delevoping recipes that really do taste and perform like their wheat counterparts. When my 19 year old daughter who is not Celiac told me that the cakes were turning out better than wheat ones and asked me to makes her "dulce de los tres leches" on her birthday this past year, to me that was a sign that I have triumphed!

I do apologize for not having my ebook available yet. There have been a lot of personal issues going on in the past year that have needed my attention. In the meantime you can contact me to get a lesson summary of one of the classes or if you are in Ottawa, attend a course - it is well worth the 8 Monday's. Although each class 80% of the recipes are different, no one ever returns as they truly understand the fundamentals of creating their kitchen in a totally gluten-free environment and the joy that yields.

All the best. Susan pce@magma.ca 613-234-0849

Why is gluten-free so tricky?

On Sunday for breakfast, had a craving for quiche. It had been a while since I made quiche so to get a jump on it I made the crust the day before and did what I would have done with a wheat pastry crust (put it in the fridge to rippen for an hour before rolling). Big mistake. Needless to say it had solidified into a cracker type (yes there must be another recipe there - as you say "crackers?" where they good?) hard bite that was to me just bad. I had used part white rice flour, part brown rice flour.

The pastry the next morning was a delight - light, flakey, tender and delicious. I omited the brown rice flour and used only the white rice flour as the rice portion of my flour mix. I did not put the dough in the fridge to ripen, nor did I let it ripen at all. I rolled it and baked it. Just lovely. Look for the recipe in the up and coming cookbook.