Lemon Poppyseed Cake GFCF style

I made a Lemon Poppyseed Cake today from this recipe. I've been in a GFCF rut lately so I needed something zingy to get me out of it.
I love lemon poppyseed cake and I didn't even think about making it gluten and casein free until I stumbled across this recipe.

The adult kids are all coming over after church tomorrow for lunch and I made this and another dessert to have then...

But they won't miss one little piece....

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Picnics and PANDAS

Picnics and other gatherings with non-GFCF families can be difficult but are an integral part of our family life. This past week we had several social get togethers and I was able to bring fresh fruit, GFCF Rice Krispie bars, plain potato chips, and the above pictured allergen free hot dogs and gluten free hot dog buns. The kids didn't have to stand out as being different because of their diets.

However, Java was exposed to something that has affected her for several days now. She has a rash on her cheeks (both facial and the other ones!) and has had an increase in dysregulated, impulsive, confused and aggressive behaviors.

This isn't her typical reaction but we cultured her for strep because she has PANDAS. The initial 24 hour reading is negative. We'll know the final reading this afternoon. We'll be careful to pay attention to her diet as we try to identify what is going on with her.

In case you are interested, there is an interesting audio interview here about PANDAS.

Crossing it off my bucket list

When you find a recipe for kale with 500 reviews, a 5 star rating and a name like "Massaged Kale Salad", you simply have to try it. I've done a lot of things in my kitchen but I'm pretty sure I've never massaged a vegetable.
I washed the kale, cut out the stems and prepared it for the massage with lemon juice, EVOO and sea salt.
The massage was lovely. I'm pretty sure the kale enjoyed it as much as I did. Then I made the dressing.

That isn't some fancy gourmet type special whisk. It's a regular whisk that some kid forced, bent and slammed in a kitchen drawer. As long at least one of the rungs is still in place, I'll be using it. Don't judge.

Add the dressing, fresh mango and sliced almonds (I used those instead of pumpkin seeds) and enjoy. Delicious! Another 5 star review!

Bucket List:

Do a cooking blog

Massage a vegetable

Meet Juan Valdez

Tacos and sorbet

We have a lot of "repeat" meals so I'm not always able to blog about something new for supper. Tacos have become a summer favorite and we've had them about once a week.
Fried corn tortillas, taco seasoned hamburger, guacamole, black beans, and a huge batch of fresh salsa. Nobody even misses the cheese anymore.

Bean helped me make the salsa. He added six cloves of fresh garlic to the tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, red onions and lime. Bean loves garlic and if we add it to a new food he will usually try it. (He's eaten fresh salsa many times already but thought the addition of garlic would improve the taste. I think he was right.)

We did have something new last night...

Dairy ice cream and sherbet are out but we can have sorbet! I bought mango and blood orange to try.

I liked the blood orange best because it tasted so light and refreshing. The kids liked the mango but decided that mixing the two created the best flavor!

A great gluten free menu

On my recent trip to Denver to speak about FASD at a large adoption conference, I met this blog friend (Lisa) who very kindly offered to pick me up at the airport. We stopped at a place called Le Peep for breakfast before going to the conference hotel. Lisa has been gluten free for much longer than I have and we were both very pleasantly surprised at this restaurant's gluten free menu.

It wasn't just one or two items...it was a whole page! I had the french toast with strawberries. It was delicious!

I wish we had a Le Peep in our area!

Food intolerances and mental illness

Interesting clips from a documentary on the connection between food intolerances and mental illness...

Fresh bread, cool kitchen

My friend Dorothy (who is busy moving her large family into a larger house) took time yesterday to deliver a GFCF load of treasures to us! Their family tried the elimination diet for 3 months but the results weren't positive enough to keep going with it so she blessed us with their stash.

The treasure load included a bread machine and some Pamela's GF Bread Mix. I've used the mix but not with a bread machine for two main reasons:

#1- I don't really like bread machine bread. The bottom crust always turned out too thick when I used it for regular bread so I could only imagine how icky gluten free bread would be.

#2- I didn't want to use my old bread machine to try it since it had been used with gluten bread and might still be contaminated (I bought it used).

Last night I decided to try the bread machine recipe for Pamela's mix. It's been hot and humid for a few weeks and it's taken a toll on the oven bread baking activities. Fresh bread without heating up the whole kitchen sounded too good to be true...

...but it was true! The bread was delicious! Even better than the oven version!

StarBUCK and I waited for the kids to go to bed before we sliced in to it, each of us covering a single slice with a thick layer of natural peanut butter and strawberry jelly. So good.

Thank you, Dorothy!