Rachel’s Recipe Box

Everyone has influences on their cooking. One of my biggest influences is my Nana, who taught me how to make ravioli and many other things. Don’t forget to write down notes and recipes from your biggest influences, as you never know what the next day will bring.

I have come to stay with my grandmother and her husband to help them as she starts recovering from her stroke. Her prognosis looks good, but every difference between “before” and “after” is difficult. They need love, meals, some help here and there (especially with the stairs) and someone under 80 driving to run a few errands.

Being here feels very right. My heart is full, and I look forward to filling their fridge and freezer in return.

Internet connectivity is spotty, as is email, but I’ll be back on Monday with book reviews, reviews of some new Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free products, recipes, a review of a Solar Science lab, and more random musings. Go hug your grandmothers, and jot down their recipes. My oldest daughter is carrying on the tradition of good food in the family by making my grandmother’s cole slaw recipe for dinner with her grandmother.

This week is Food Allergy Awareness week, and this month is Celiac Disease Awareness month. To honor both of these, we are participating on the bi-weekly Food Allergy carnival and talking about summer camp despite food restrictions

Our family has Celiac Disease, an intolerance to dairy, and LG has a severe berry allergy. We bring our own food to birthday parties, parks, and playdates, but I never wanted the dietary restrictions to restrict the girls’ access to activities. Occasionally an event is so food-centered that we can’t participate, but as food restrictions become more well-known, we can go to more and more events without risking a reaction.
Read the rest of the entry

First, an apology - we’ve had some site-wide downtime and snafus when we needed to switch web hosts this weekend. We are sorry for any inconvenience, and will be posting extra recipes this week to make up for it.

The Food Allergy Carnival was posted Friday. Over at A Gaggle of Girls, we contributed a piece about planning in advance for the holiday.

Meanwhile, there’s about a month before Passover. Are you stocking up? Remember that many foods that are “kfp” or Kosher for Passover are also safe for a wide variety of allergens. During Passover, most Jews avoid wheat, soy, and corn, in addition to leavening, though some food has matzoh. You want to look for Kosher for Passover labeling (get your corn-free Coke!) and the words “non-gebrokts”, which means there is no matzoh.

We’ll be posting a review soon of Susie Fishbein’s fabulous cookbook Passover by Design, which includes 160 recipes, of which 130 are non-gebrokts, and many of the remaining 30 can be easily adapted to be gluten-free, if not safe for Passover. As a bonus, most of the recipes are also dairy-free, and there’s even a gluten-free, soy-free, passover-safe teriyaki sauce! That’s worth the price of the book in and of itself!

I joined Foodie Mama today, and have posted two articles - you can check my articles out via my GF Gaggle profile. You may, of course, leave ratings for the articles and recipes…

Today, I posted an article about raising allergy-friendly kids, and the incredibly easy kids-cooking Revolutionary Pumpkin Custard. There are some other great recipes including Vegan Chocolate Cake, which we make gluten-free and vegan, calling it Wacky Cake. I’m glad to see there are other allergy-friendly recipes there!

If you were going to read articles on healthy and allergy-friendly living, what kind of articles would you like to see?

Last week I had the opportunity to review a new juice called Froose. It’s a mix of whole grain brown rice and juice, and is gluten-free, kosher pareve, dairy-free, soy-free, and sweetened with brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup or sugar. Please check out our review and check out Froose for yourself. We really like the peach!

We were also lucky enough to receive a sample of some new gluten-free and dairy-free treats from Amy’s Kitchen! They sent us my favorite enchiladas, plus the new gluten & dairy-free pizza, ziti, cream-of-rice.  Yum!  They’ve added a delicious-sounding tamale, and a ziti kid’s meal to their product line, too. Check out the labeling at Amy’s Kitchen - it’s really easy to see what items will fit with your dietary restrictions.

I haven’t seen my kids looking forward to lunch this much for a while!  However, I doubt that when Amy’s Kitchen created their vegan and gluten-free pizza they intended for kids to dream of adding meat-filled pepperoni!

In general, I find baking dairy-free reasonably easy - there are a lot of alternatives out there, and in general dairy-free baking doesn’t alter the recipe - be it Gluten-free or not. Eggs are another story, but we’re not going there today! I use Fleishmann’s Unsalted margarine (Kosher Pareve, no dairy, no casein) as a 1:1 substitute for butter when I bake. I use Soy Garden or Earth Balance tubs (both Vegan and Kosher Pareve, no dairy, no casein) margarine in place for butter in stove-top cooking. I use Spectrum Shortening for any shortening needs, but Crisco is also dairy-free.

I use rice milk, soy milk, water, or coconut milk (usually the latter) in place of any milk in baking. To make “sour cream” or “buttermilk” or even “yogurt” when its called for in recipes, I add 1TBS of lemon juice or vinegar per 1 cup “milk”, and it works just right in baking. Coconut milk works especially well for anything that needs more substance - ie: sour cream or yogurt substitutes. If you need “cream”, you can chill a coconut milk can, which separates it into a solid and a liquid. Scoop out (and heat) the solid, and you have the texture of cream, as well as the fat to carry flavor. Savory foods won’t taste coconutty, but sweet foods will have a bit of coconut taste, depending on the amount used (ie: if you use 1/4 cup coconut milk to 2 cups chocolate, no one will notice).

Once you are soy-free, things become more complicated. The liquid changes are the same, but the margarine changes aren’t. In some areas, Fleishmann’s sells a tub-product called “Fleishmann’s Light”, and it has no soy or dairy. The Fleishmann’s Unsalted that I currently use has soy oil, which is OK for some people who are avoiding soy, and not OK for others. If they aren’t available in your area, you can order them at Kosher.com.

For soy-free baking, I use Spectrum Shortening in place of butter/margarine. Spectrum Shortening can be found in most large grocery stores in the Health Food aisle, or in any health food store - including Gluten-Free Mall online. It worked well for me in baking and cooking, but it doesn’t have quite the same flavor, and is most definitely not a table spread. Flax oil worked as a “liquid butter” topping for my kids, but that might not work for everyone.

For a completely dairy-free and soy-free margarine, you want to start keeping your eyes out for Kosher grocery stores and even some Kosher delis. At Passover, they will sell Mother’s Margarine (Passover Version), which uses cottonseed oil as a base. It’s not an optimal oil in general, but it is allergy-safe. Many Kosher grocery stores keep the Kosher for Passover Mother’s Margarine in stock year-round. You can also order it online at various Kosher supply stores such as Kosher.com. As we get closer to Passover, it will be easier to find.

Chocolate is another one thats difficult if you’re soy-free. Most chocolate has soy lecithen, which is like soy oil - safe for some and unsafe for others. The EnjoyLife chocolate chips are soy-free, and most health food shops stock them - including Gluten-Free Mall online. This is another area where Kosher for Passover comes in handy - if you live in an area with Kosher grocery stores, you can get soy-free chocolate during the Passover season. Chocolate Emporium has lovely Dairy Free and Soy Free (and Gluten-free) treats near Passover - usually their treats have soy lecithen, but they are soy-free during Passover for religious reasons.

I need to edit some recipes to link back to this, and explain the substitutes that have worked for me over the years. We have now been at least somewhat dairy-free for 9 years, Gluten-free for 5 years, and during those 5 years we have been (at different times) soy-free, egg-free, corn-free, and now berry-free.

Do you have any dairy- and soy-free baking/cooking tips? What did I forget?

You walk into a house that isn’t yours. You have arrived at a holiday party, and there is a lot of food. Food is the way many people show love (think of all those cookies you receive!). You hang up your coat, and then greet your hosts, friends, and family. You are offered a variety of drinks, and choose something you like to keep your mouth moist as you talk. After some chatting, you become hungry, so you walk over to the spread of food.

On the table(s), there are glazed sugar cookies, decorated gingerbread, fudge, salmon and crackers, ham, roast beef and cheese with sandwich buns, shrimp and cocktail sauce, chili, cheese and crackers, a bowl of dried fruits, some roasted nuts in a bowl, and some raw veggies with a dip. It’s a lot of food!

What do you do? What food allergies/intolerances do you cope with? Read the rest of the essay

This post is part of the Food Allergy Blog Carnival

We’ve been living with dairy alternatives for 9 years now. We’ve been living gluten-free due to Celiac Disease for almost 5 years. We’ve been living berry-free for a bit over a year. In the past 9 years we’ve gone through times of needing to avoid citrus, soy, eggs, and corn. Not all at once, though! I’ve picked up a few ideas on how to make the transition to a new diet, and/or living with a restricted diet easier, and I hope they’re helpful.

I’ve got a new tip to start us off - my friend has a child who is anaphylactic to almost everything (no, really!). On their front door is a a sign saying “No Food Allowed”, because they live in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids who were coming over with food. If we lived in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids, we might well have a sign like that up, too. It’s a great way to reduce the risk of cross-contamination in your house, though you might have to pay for a bit more food so the neighbor kids have something to eat when they’re visiting!
Read more tips

I’m sending you to one of my book reviews today - Phoebe Damrosch has written a book about love and food that is wonderful, and reads like a novel. While Damrosch doesn’t have food allergies, she mentions them frequently and treats them seriously, as does the restaurant where she worked - Per Se in NYC. It’s a refreshing change from most other foodie memoirs!

I received an advance reader’s copy of Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter by Phoebe Damrosch from Harper Collins for review at the end of the summer. Unfortunately, it got put in the wrong stack of books, and I just now rediscovered it. I’m very disappointed I didn’t read it earlier.

I don’t want to pigeon hole Service Included into one category. It is a story about a woman’s experience as a “Captain”, or one of the main waitresses, in a four star restaurant in NYC. However, she isn’t a waitress to support another artistic career - she’s there because she’s in love with the food It’s also the story of a woman falling in love with a man who joins her in her food love affair, and brings the wine. This is a non-fiction book that reads as smoothly as a novel.

If you wanted a recipe for Service Included, I would say that it’s got a splash of Kitchen Confidential, a few pinches of Cooking for Mr. Latte, and a twist of Garlic and Sapphires. There’s a secret ingredient in there, too - Phoebe Damrosch’s perspective and personality, which makes everything “just right”. Read the rest of the review…

This isn’t even really worth a recipe, but it’s an easy candy, and it looks nice. Broken up and put into petit fours cups or holiday ziplocs it is a great gift candy.

Melt 1 bag chocolate chips (if you can find white chocolate chips that fit your dietary requirements, that looks great)

Smash 4 candy canes into little bits (oooh, this is fun!)

Mix the two together, then spread out on parchment paper, wax paper, or silpat. chill. crack into pieces and serve.

I hear this is really yummy from my family and friends, but I don’t like candy canes. I’ll take other people’s word for it!