You'll Crack Your Head Open!

Gluten free potstickers!  I know!  I’m so shocked it worked.  I didn’t even take pictures, other than the end result.  These were the second batch, which I didn’t watch as carefully so they burned a bit on the bottom.  More of a caramelized thing, so it tasted good, but still.  It came across too dark on the camera.

Every once in a while I would think there’s got to be a way to make potstickers gluten free.  Because if you think about it, Chinese food is usually made by hand.  It’s country cooking, just a different country.  I learned how to make fried rice and a few chinese style sauces, but I figured potstickers would be a very long process of trying to figure out what flours worked, what I needed to add as far as gums or maybe a egg yolk to make sure it holds together.  But it was just a thought on the back burner that someday I’d give it a shot.

So I was looking at this month’s Fine Cooking magazine and it had a recipe for potstickers.  I was curious to see what they made the dough out of.  Turns out?  Flour and water.  That’s it.

Hmm… That is very interesting..  It got me thinking that if nothing else it would actually be a really good way to get to know the properties of the different flours.

So I decided to go ahead and make potstickers with the expectation that they weren’t going to work, but I’d play around with making dough with different flours and I’d probably end up cooking the potsticker filling on its own and just throwing it into the fried rice.  No biggie.

So I throw some of the same gluten free flour mix that I use for cookies in a bowl, stir in some hot water until it formed a dough and let it rest at room temperature (I wrapped it in plastic wrap) like the recipe said.  Patrick was late getting home so it probably sat for a couple hours before I got to it.

I made the filling from a recipe by Ming Tsai on FoodNetwork.com.  The recipes in Fine Cooking were more fancy and I just wanted to see if I could even make them.  So I got to work and started rolling out the dough, which was working very well.  I had some dumpling presses that I used to shape them.  They held together really well when I folded them.  I wasn’t too surprised about the potstickers holding together, but I was not expecting them to cook the same as regular potstickers.  I expected the dough to do something weird and I’d end up with a mess in the pan.

But they turned out great.  I just cooked them according to the Ming Tsai recipe.  They look just like potstickers.

Patrick ate five of them.  And he’s picky about gluten free food.  He said they were “excellent.”  They have that kind of chewy/crunchy bottom and the steamed soft/chewy top like regular potstickers.  I was blown away.

To go with it, I made Emeril’s Honey Soy Dipping Sauce.  I use San J wheat free soy sauce in place of regular soy and I just used regular honey.  It was really, really good.

So yea… Wow.  I never would have thought…

I have been gluten free for four years now.  I have never had so many people ask me about gluten free and tell me they have a friend or loved one who has been recently diagnosed as I have in the last three weeks.

This is just in real life.  And let me tell you I don’t get out much.  I’m kind of shy in real life, so it’s not like I’m out there networking or shaking hands.  They’re just other school parents that know I’m gluten free because they know my kids.

The one thing that I’ve heard from just about everybody I’ve talked to about this is how hard it is to find gluten free products and how expensive it is.  This is always a surprise to me because there are really only maybe a dozen specialty products that I buy on a regular basis.  Other than that I shop at the regular grocery store.  I’d say probably 85% of what we eat is the exact same thing everyone else eats.

Talking to these people reminds me of how confusing and time-consuming grocery shopping was at first.

The first thing you should know if you’re new to gluten free is the things that are naturally gluten free.  Fresh unmarinated, unseasoned meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, potatoes and rice.  Milk, cream and butter are also gluten free.

After that, there are three major food brands that I recommend people focus on when they’re learning the gluten free diet.  Kraft, McCormick and Frito Lay.  These companies all practice what we call full disclosure.  You see, legally companies can include gluten within the phrases “natural flavor” or “spices” without telling you what’s in there.  These companies will not do that.  All you have to do is read the labels and the ingredients will be listed in plain English.  There are other companies that also practice full disclosure, but with these three major brands you can go a very long way.  So we’re just going to start with these.

Here is a copy and paste of Kraft’s gluten labeling policy, that you can also view HERE .

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You might be thinking, okay fine, but that’s just Kraft.  Now I can buy cheese and salad dressing.  But actually, Kraft is a large corporation with dozens of brands.  Look on the back of a lot of the products you’ve been buying for years.  There is a good possibility that it’s a Kraft brand.  Here are just a few examples -

Jet Puff Marshmallows, Cool Whip, Grey Poupon Mustards, Kool Aid, Jell-O, Good Seasons, Cheese Whiz, Knudsen, Easy Cheese, Oscar Meyer (mmm… bacon….), Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Planter’s Nuts and Velveeta.

Keep in mind that that just means that Kraft promises to label any gluten in plain English.  You still need to read the label.  Product ingredients can (and do) change at any time.

McCormick’s gluten labeling policy can be viewed at there website by clicking HERE .  Here is a copy and paste -

Do your products contain gluten?

All of our single ingredient spices and herbs are gluten-free and 100% pure, with nothing added to them. All of our extracts, including Pure Vanilla, are also gluten-free. Some of our products do contain gluten, and this will be clearly listed in BOLD type within the ingredient statement. We do not maintain a list of gluten-free products, as our formulas change from time to time.

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McCormick not only has all of those single ingredient spices, but they have spice mixes, seasoning packets, flavor extracts and food coloring.  We use the Original Taco Seasoning packet at least once a week.  Reading the ingredients is very important however, because one type of product may be gluten free, but a very similar product can contain gluten.

Frito Lay is HUGE in our house.  When you feel like you’re always having to tell your family and friends that you can’t eat this or that, or you can’t eat that, or go to that restaurant, grabbing a bag of Cheetos or Fritos is like grabbing a great big bag of NORMAL.  And if you’re just starting this diet, normal is soooo important for you right now.

Frito Lay actually has a HUGE gluten free product list, which can be viewed HERE .  It’s a long list, so I decided not to copy and paste it.  Take note that the regular Nacho flavor of Doritos are NOT gluten free.  Remember to read, read, read the labels.   Frito Lay also says that the products on this list are made on the same equipment as products containing gluten.  They wash the equipment as thoroughly as possible, but can’t guarantee 100% that some gluten residue won’t remain.  To be honest, I was glutened by a bag of Doritos a couple times, but considering the couple dozen bags of Frito Lay products that we go through in a month for the last four years, that’s pretty good for products that are produced on the same line as gluten.  When that did happen, I contacted Frito Lay and let them know (gave them all the codes on the bag).  They were very apologetic and said they’d forward the information to the plant the made the bag.  That was a couple years ago and I haven’t had a problem since.  It was a couple months before I was brave enough to try them again, but after that no problems.

When I first started eating gluten free, I pretty much stuck to McCormick, Frito Lay and Kraft brands, with an occasional email to a company to check on something.  It was a year or more before I started to really expand past that.  So with foods that are naturally gluten free, and these three companies, you can get through that first few months and weeks where you’re still not feeling well and really just need to know what to eat.

I hope that helps everybody.  I’m planning on doing a series of posts highlighting other brands that I use and trust.  I just wanted to be able to get you started on things you can get at any grocery store in the country.

Take care everybody.  And let me know if there’s a brand or type of product you want me to look into, or if you have any questions.  I really like being able to help people who are just getting started.

I use this mix as a 1 to 1 exact replacement in all of my cookie recipes, including my old family recipes.  It’s never let me down. It’s also good if you like to eat some of the cookie dough because it doesn’t have any bean flour. If you’re using a flour mix that has bean flour in it don’t eat it. I know it smells good, but seriously. Don’t. I still have flashbacks from when I did that about four years ago. {shudder…}

I found the flour mix on page 6 of Annalise Roberts’ book – Gluten-Free Baking Classics.  Make sure you get the extra fine rice flour.  It is the reason this flour mix works.  It’s very powdery.  Not gritty at all.  I think that one of the many reasons that GF products tend to fall apart is because the gritty rice flour doesn’t stick together well.  With all of the other roadblocks to good GF baked goods, why not take one out of the equation.  :)

For three cups of this flour mix you need:

2 cups Extra Finely Ground Rice Flour (made by Authentic Foods)

2/3 cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)

1/3 cup Tapioca Flour (tapioca starch is the same thing in this case)

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

Mix all of this together thoroughly.  I use a whisk to get it all mixed.

Now go make some chocolate chip cookies.  And eat some cookie dough while you’re at it.  Or get yourself some Haagen Dazs Vanilla ice cream and make yourself some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

Yay!  It’s negative.  Here’s the run-down:  For the test, I measured out two cups of Dr. Pepper, put it in a stainless steel pot and simmered it down until it was down to half a cup.  So that’s what?  A 4x reduction?  It didn’t thicken up too much either.  It was still pretty liquidy and wicked up the test strip just fine.  I let it cool down to room temperature too because I was worried that heat might make the test not work right.   I looked at the strip under a good light too and there wasn’t even a faint line.  The control and hook lines showed up fine, so we have a negative.

So Dr. Pepper is definitely gluten free.  Well at least there’s that.  Honestly, I’m probably just eating (and drinking) waaaay too much sugar, especially with all of the halloween candy around.

I did take a glutenease as I was waiting for the test to finish and I felt better emotionally after about 15 minutes even after being down in the dumps a bit for a few days.  (In addition to feeling sick.)  Which coincides with me buying the halloween candy.   As far as I’m remembering the only halloween candy I’ve been eating have been the Baby Ruths and Butterfingers.  In my experience, Butterfingers are kind of a crapshoot.  Sometimes they get me and sometimes they don’t get me for months.  I’d bet there’s an occasional cross contact issue on their lines. So that’s an easy solution – stop eating the halloween candy.  I should also say that I tend to be on the more sensitive side when it comes to reacting to gluten.  I react to some things that most people don’t.  Like vodka made from wheat.  I can’t drink that, but I know most people who have gluten issues have no problem with it.  So your mileage may vary, as they say..

Besides, who needs halloween candy when I’ve got these – Glutino Sans Gluten Free Chocolate Covered Wafers. The ones in the brown box.  KitKat much?  OMG these are sooo good.  Not that I hide them from my children or anything.

This weekend I’m going to Joe’s Crab Shack with a bunch of friends.  I discovered they had a lot of gluten free stuff last summer.  Love it!  It’s kind of downtown though, which freaks me out to drive in.  I’m a suburbs kind of girl.  Give me a left turn arrow light and some nice wide streets to drive my minivan through and I’ll drive anywhere.  Throw a one-way street or paralell parking at me and I start getting shaky.   But apparently a steampot and Pop Rocks margaritas are my currency right now.  Who knew?

I feel better today.  Not as tired and headachy and my sore throat is getting better.

Right now I’m boiling down some Dr. Pepper to do a gluten test on it.  I’ve been really tiired and cranky lately.  Might as well check and see if that’s the problem.  I’m boiling it down so that I can boil off some of the water so if there is gluten in there it will be easier to detect.  I’m up to drinking several Dr. Peppers a day, so even if there’s just a small amourt of gluten, it might be building up and causing problems for me.  It’s also very possible that it’s  not gluten at all and it’s just the chemical crap and all that sugar in sodas in general.  At this point I’m just curious if it’s gluten or not.

Considering the fact that Dr. Pepper has sooo much sugar in it and I’m boiling it, I might just end up with candy.  I’m trying to keep the temperature low though.  So hopefully I won’t reach hard crack stage or anything like that.  We’ll see.

The plan is that once I get the Dr. Pepper boiled down enough I’m going to do an EZ Gluten test.  It detects gluten down to 10 ppm (parts per million) and I’m trying to up the sensitivity of the test by concentrating the sample by boiling it down.  So if there’s any gluten in there, I’m going to find it.

Or I might end up with a great big piece of Dr. Pepper candy.  Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either…

I’m soooo glad Halloween is finally over.  I’m ready to be done with it.  I’m not much for horror  movies or anything like that, so by the time Halloween week rolls around I’m up to here with all of the scary movies and TV plots everytime I turn on the television.  I did more decorating for Halloween this year than I probably ever have.  Which means there are pumpkins on my mantle.  I’ve always got a lot of plans for decorating, but never quite get it together.  Maybe I’ll hit some clearance sales and see if I can get some stuff for next year.

Right now I’m fighting off some sort of a bug.  It’s just hovering in the headache and sorethroat stage right now.  Thank goodness oscillococcinum and zicam are gluten free.  I hate just sitting there and letting a bug get me.  At least those make me feel like I’m doing something that might help.

I’m going to be hosting Thanksgiving for our family this year.  I think I’m going to go the honeybaked ham route if they’re still gluten free.  As of Easter, someone on one of the message boards confirmed that the ham was GF, but it’s always better to reverify I think.  And it only takes a few minutes to email.  I’m hoping their ham and turkey are both gluten free so we can have both.  It’s a small group.  Just 8 adults, one teenager and four littles from 4-8 years old.

I’m planning on going the traditional route – ham and turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes (chunks, not mashed), fried okra courtesy of my FIL and a big salad.  Then pumpkin pie for dessert.  I might add some other stuff if I’m feeling like doing it when Thanksgiving gets closer, but I think that’s pretty much going to be the basic menu.  As long as Honeybaked gets back to me with good news the only thing I need to really get that’s gluten free is pie crust from Whole Foods.  That’s easy enough.

I’ve also got my birthday in November.  I’ll be 39.  Woot!  I’m obnoxious about getting older.  I’m totally fine with it.  Some of the side effects, not so much.  But getting older in itself doesn’t bother me.

Today I’m going to try to get through a bunch of laundry.  I’m planning on going through my son’s toys and “putting them in the attic” (wink, wink..).  I always pull a few aside that I think he might still miss and keep them in the garage for a few weeks just in case he notices something is gone.  I went through my daughter’s toys a couple weeks ago and she’s done fine with it.  Fingers crossed that my son doesn’t freak about anything I can’t get back.

I have mixed feelings about writing about this.   On the one hand I want people to know that this helps me.  On the other hand I don’t want people to think that this is a cure or a way to eat gluten.

The best way to put it is that for me, taking GlutenEase (note the fancy linkage) for a glutening is like taking DayQuil for a cold or flu.   It helps.  It helps a lot.  But in the end you still don’t feel good.  It’s just not as bad.   Basically, it takes the edge off and I can go on with my life reasonably well.

GlutenEase isn’t something that’s been FDA approved, of course.  So anyone taking it is taking it at their own risk.  The ingredients, although identified and explained, are a mystery as far as long-term effects, etc.

I’ve always felt reasonably comfortable taking herbal supplements because there is generally a long and extensive history of how herbs effect people, and any potential side-effects or contraindications are easily identified.  Not so with GlutenEase, so it’s something I would only take after a glutening and not to get all experimental with trying to eat something gluteny.  I’m not willing to find out in 10 years that the magic that makes this work also causes liver damage or something.  Sorry.  I’ve spent too many years being sick to take that kind of chance.   Plus, there’s no way to know if GlutenEase just blocks the symptoms while the gluten is creating harikari in your intestines, nervous system, muscles, bones, etc.  or if it really does stop the reaction completely.

For me though, I’ve decided that occasional use for accidental glutenings is worthwhile.

I do have kids who are also gluten-intolerant.  And there is no way I’d give them something like this.  My concerns about my using it are multipied 100x for them.   On the rare occasion we all get glutened, I don’t take GlutenEase.  I’d just feel too guilty feeling better while they’re still miserable.

** UPDATE **

Since this is one of my most popular posts, I wanted to give an update on it.

I have had one heck of an awful month with getting glutened.  I think I got glutened 6 or 7 times in one month!!   That’s more than I usually get glutened in six months!    I’ve replaced some things in my kitchen – a wooden spoon, an old wisk (that was a stupid thing to keep), a soap dispenser that may have become contaminated and the dog food.  One or all of them may have been the culprit.   Let’s just say thank goodness for glutenease because without it I would have really been up a creek.

So here’s the bad news – I’m dairy intolerant again.   My villi are wearing down.

You may not be familiar with villous atrophy in celiac disease or why the reoccurance of dairy intolerance is important here.   This is how it was explained to me by some sciencey-types:

When someone has celiac disease, the main symptom that they look for to confirm the diagnosis is the wearing away of the lining of the small intestine.   A healthy intestinal lining actually consists not of a smooth surface, but of millions of tiny finger-like projections called villi.   Those villi are actually what absorb nutrients from the foods we eat.   When someone has celiac disease, those villi are attacked and destroyed.  Sometimes they are just worn down, and sometimes they are completely destroyed down to nothing.

Interestingly, it’s at the very tips of the villi that the enzymes to digest dairy are produced.   Which is why it’s often true that a person who has been diagnosed with celiac or gluten intolerance is also intolerant to dairy.   Once gluten has been removed from the diet, in most cases the villi begin to heal and actually grow back.  Including those little tips that help to digest dairy.

You can see where I’m going with this.

I think it’s pretty obvious that although Glutenease does help control symptoms, the intestinal damage IS still happening.  And it doesn’t take long at all.  Kind of surprising what can happen in a month. Which proves out the concerns I had about it initially.

I still believe it is useful and I will continue to use it just as I have been.   I still don’t think I’m doing anyone any favors by not being able to get out of the bathroom and/or the bed for days if I’ve been glutened if I don’t have to be.   Just being able to live my life anyway, despite not feeling well, is enough of an improvement for me.

I think that this just underlines that there is currently no treatment other than strict adherance to the gluten-free diet.

Here’s our list of favorite gluten-free products.  I’m going to give this posting a picture thing a shot here.

Pamela’s Amazing Wheat Free Bread Mix – http://www.pamelasproducts.com/

(Hey look!  I did it!)

This bread is the best!  It tastes a lot like regular wheat bread.  It also has that soft, springy texture and a neutral flavor.   We’ve found other bread that we like, but most have an unusual flavor that doesn’t mix well with certain things (peanut butter sandwiches for example).   This one works great with everything.   I even make hamburger buns out of it.

Pamela’s Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix http://www.pamelasproducts.com/

I make pancakes out of this once a week or so.  They taste great.  They’ve got almond meal in them too, which gives a nice flavor.  I use it as a flour mix in a few of my recipes too.

Bi-Aglut Pasta – http://www.biaglut.com/ENG/default.aspx

Gluten-free pasta made in Italy.  This tastes just like regular gluteny pasta.  Last Christmas Hubby made goulash for the family dinner and everyone thought that I was eating something different.  But the whole meal was gluten-free.  Anything that can fool gluten eaters is on my must-have list.   Tinkyada pasta is very good, but my husband doesn’t like it.  So rather than mess with making two types of pasta (and risking the resulting problems for me and the kids), we use Bi-Aglut and everyone is happy.

Ener-G Wheat-Free Crackers – http://www.ener-g.com/

I buy these by the case.  They are unsalted and kind of remind me of a combination between a Carr’s Water Cracker and an unsalted saltine.   Unlike many GF crackers, these stay in one piece and don’t fall apart when you’re trying to eat them.

Sunstart Coconut Cookies – http://www.sunstartbakery.com/home.cfm

These are the best.  They have a toasted coconut flavor.  They remind me so much of Girl Scout Samoas.  I was thinking of trying to put some chocolate and caramel on them, but I like them so much as they are that I haven’t tried it yet.

Kinnikinnick – Montana’s Chocolate Chip Cookies – http://www.kinnikinnick.com/

The kids love these.  They call the health food store where we get these The Cookie Store.

Kinnikinnick – Chocolate Dipped Donuts – http://www.kinnikinnick.com

The chocolate coating tastes exactly like the the chocolate coating on every chocolate donut I ever had pre-gluten-free.  The donut is more like a dense cake donut and not the raised kind that I used to get, but the chocolate coating makes it all worth it.

Well, that’s about it for our major gluten-free products.   We have others that we get occasionally.  These are the things that are almost always in our pantry though.   Just about everything else is mainstream products.

I wasn’t planning on this blog being a “gluten-free” driven blog.   But I’ve seen so many people with blogs who are doing the gluten-free diet.  Some just starting out too.   I know how hard it can be at first, especially if you don’t know anyone who has been through it too.

I’ve been gluten-free for about a year and a half, so even though I’m not totally a veteran, I’ve been through the initial phase of decontaminating the kitchen, finding out what products are worth their weight in gold and which products the dog won’t even eat.

Being a junk food junkie AND having two pre-schoolers, I think I’ll start off with a list of my favorite mainstream gluten-free junk food.

Cool Ranch Doritos (not classic Nacho – it has wheat starch)

Cheetos

Lays Stax (not Pringles)

Fritos

Easy Cheese (the spray cheese – not the bacon kind though)

Mission Tortilla Chips

Salsa

M&M’s  – all but the crispy kind

Most See’s Candy (http://www.kintera.org/site/pp.asp?c=ewK0LjP7E&b=34870)

Plain Hershey’s Kisses

Popsicles

Peanut Butter

Most sodas

Fruity Pebbles

Cocoa Pebbles

Remember to ALWAYS (!!) read labels and verify products for yourself.   Companies can reformulate products at any time.  Sometimes they add gluten for whatever reason.   Up until a few years ago Kellogg’s Corn Pops were gluten-free.  Then all of a sudden they weren’t.