Monthly Archives: July 2011

“Gosh, Emily,” some of you might be thinking to yourselves, “However do you manage to come up with so many things to write about?”

I would like to tell you that the answer involves magic and also a room full of carefully-trained monkeys, but that would be a lie (the monkeys receive little — if any — training). However, it does involve some handy Google Alerts, within which there is one topic I keep weeding out (pun intended): corn gluten.

Every time I see corn gluten, it’s in reference to herbicide. Not to eating, or cooking, or celiac disease. So is it something you or I need to care about?
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I already knew about El’s Kitchen when they contacted us to see if we wanted to try their gluten-free snacks. Technically, I suppose, I could have written back and said, “Oh, it’s OK, no need to send any samples over since I know what your food tastes like.”

But that would have been silly of me. El’s is delicious. Of course I wanted samples.

So, the other day I was on my way back from the supermarket, and a box was waiting for me on my front porch. Inside, a bag of El’s Medleys and another of El’s Bagel Snaps. Even though I had a whole satchel full of groceries, you can bet I opened the El’s first.
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OK ok ok ok I know this blog isn’t a spot for my personal problems. But you know how the other day I was saying I got dumped by a caveman?

That was lame. It was no fun. I would have preferred it did not happen, but it did, and that’s how the gluten-free cookie crumbles. I guess it’s not a very big gluten-free cookie – we weren’t dating for very long, really.

The reason I’m blathering on about this is that this was my first experience dating someone else who was gluten-free. And it was awesome. I didn’t realize how much of a difference it would make, but it was really nice.
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I thought maybe today we’d talk about kohlrabi.

Why? Well, mostly because I like it. I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately – it’s a little early in the season, but the stuff is generally available – and thought you might enjoy a kohlrabi kick of your own.

If you’ve never had it before, have you seen it in your local grocery store? You might see a picture like this one, or you might see it with the leaves chopped off. You might see it green, or maybe purple.

Whichever way, it’s a great, gluten-free source of potassium, fiber, Thiamin, Folate, Magnesium and Phosphorus, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Copper and Manganese.

Yum! But what to do with it once you buy it?
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One benefit (or peril) of being a blogger is that when it comes food, when it rains it pours.

The other week was a cereal storm, the horizon shows a smattering of loaves of bread, etc etc. But the week before last, our weather system was full of cookies.

Enjoy Life Crunch Cookies, to be precise. Four boxes descended on the apartment, and we made short work of them. The verdict? Pretty tasty.

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Hi all. So, I wrote today’s post last week, and between now and then I got dumped. Do me a favor and switch it all over to the past tense, k? The info’s still good, but boys are yabba-dabba-dumb.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with a caveman lately.

OK that’s not true. But I have been spending a lot of time with someone who loosely follows the paleo diet, and I’m pretty sure if brontosaurus burgers were an option, he’d be cooking them.

And you know what? I’d eat them. Brontosaurus is probably tasty. And he’s a good cook.

I didn’t really know anything about the paleo diet before, but I think it’s an interesting one to consider. And, since it’s gluten-free by default, the paleo community can be a great additional source of recipe ideas for anyone who’s gluten-free.
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According to the Edmonton Sun, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning parents about Healthy Times Brown Rice Cereal for Baby.

The claim states that the cereal contains gluten, although no gluten-containing ingredients are listed on the label. The claim is based on one allergic reaction, so I don’t know whether or not it’s valid.

Just in case, here are the additional details:

The cereal is made in the US, and presumably it can be purchased here as well. It is for sale in Canada, minimally in Ontario but maybe elsewhere too. If there is affected cereal, it has the UPC code 0 48685 02188 0 and a best-before date of Jan. 15, 2013.

The only listed ingredient is brown rice flour, but the company also makes cereals with barley and oats. Perhaps a case of cross-contamination? Perhaps an unrelated allergic reaction to something other than gluten?

I certainly have no idea, but I thought you might want to know. If I see any additional posts on-topic, I’ll post them.

Some weeks we focus on food, and those are happy weeks. Some weeks all the news seems to be about studies, and those usually make me feel a little bit like a fear-monger.

So you’ll excuse me for not feeling great about posting two studies in a row, but this seems like it’s info worth sharing. I’ll try to talk about something delicious on Friday.

Today, though, let’s talk about vision. Specifically about cataracts. Did you know that celiac disease can put us at increased risk for cataracts? Me neither, but the numbers seem to suggest that this is the case.
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No celiac? Look harder.

An interesting article from this month’s Gastrointestinal Endoscopy today.

If you have already been diagnosed with celiac disease, this article might not be relevant for you. If you had a biopsy come back as negative or inconclusive, but are still convinced you’re celiac…then this might shed some light on the mysterious depth of your intestines.

If you’re still eating gluten and contemplating a biopsy, then I highly recommend you take 2 minutes and read to the end here. Because it turns out that the overwhelming majority of biopsies don’t take enough samples.

Without enough samples, the rate of diagnosis isn’t particularly good. I know, right? Shocking.
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Back in May we heard some rumors about a gluten-free pizza crust debuting at California Pizza Kitchen.

We were pretty excited then, but we’re even more excited now that we received a little love note from CPK. Sorry for not posting before the holiday, but I got all caught up in fireworks and berries and festive things like that.

“Hi,” the email begins. “The wait is over! Today California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) has launched gluten free pizza crust, making 29 of their original pizzas available gluten free. ”

disclaimer, I doubt this one is the gluten-free crust

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