Scenes we'd Like to see on Cooking Shows

One of the funniest things I saw in recent memory was an episode where Emeril was cooking with the late, great Julia Child, the queen of all Television chefs. They were making a soufflé, and Emeril, as I recall, had a slight variation on the classic theme. In the end, the soufflé didn’t quite come out as perfect as Julia would have liked, and she commented on that fact.

It made me think of what it would be like to see one of my super experimental Gluten Free dishes on some cooking show. Instead of ooh’s and ah’s, there may be a wide eyed look with the classic puckered lips that preclude someone wanting to spit the substance out into the nearest napkin or receptacle.

 

These are the types of dishes that I’ve had to experiment with through the years as I’ve tried to perfect the GLuten free version of any number of dishes. Some of the tried and true variations start with the classic Cream of Mushroom soup, which is off limits for those of us who follow the GF lifestyle.

 

So what do we do? There are some fool-proof, never-fail variations on a theme that will work well with any chicken casserole or dish that calls for the Cream of Mushroom soup base. The white sauce is probably the best for a base sauce-a “Mother” sauce-for Gluten-Free Cooks.

 Here’s your basic white sauce: I use a Vita-Mix blender. Any good blender should do the trick.

 

1 1/3 cups Lowfat milk-soy milk

¼ cup all purpose flour-GF

¼ cup Light butter

½ tsp salt-opt

 

*Place ingredient in blender (Vita-Mix) in order listed above. Secure the lid and start speed on low (1 on VM). Quickly increase the speed to High and blend for about 5 minutes. For Cheese Sauce :May add ½ to ¾ cup of good low-fat cheese or cheese substitute.

Why I am sick of hearing about new cookbooks

I confess that I am sick to death of cookbooks. I see nothing but cookbooks when I enter a bookstore or turn on the television. It seems like every day somebody famous or semi-famous has a new cookbook. Actresses, politicians, writers & TV chefs are all pushing their latest cookbook. The funny thing is, almost every one of them has some kind of a "hook". The skinny jeans, the white trash, the French way, the American way, and now, of course, the gluten-free way to eat.


And they all seem to be selling the reader (that’s you) this idea that if you buy this particular cookbook, you will automatically become famous and skinny and funny and witty and all that jazz. Well, we all know that’s a bunch of hokum. But still, there’s a reason for all these different cookbooks. They are not only selling their way of cooking, but they're also selling a window into their different outlook. “Look at me and the way I cook and ….the glow of your being will outshine every star” (Or some variation on that theme).

 

To my way of thinking, there must be others out there like myself. Not a grand cook, or a famous celebrity, but an ordinary person who suddenly discovered that unless you are willing to make some pretty major changes in the way you eat and the way you think about food, then you are never going to feel really good in this lifetime.

So here am I. And I am writing….a cookbook!? But this is not just any ordinary cookbook. This is a chronicle of a journey that I embarked upon almost 20 odd years ago. It was a time in my life I will never forget. I still remember the day I found out I could no longer eat wheat.

 

 

The nutritionist had sent out my lab work and the results were incredible to me. I had to learn to live without bread, without mustard, without shrimp and without dairy products. I remember sitting in a restaurant and wondering if life as I knew it was over. And, in a way, it was. The old way of eating had to die and I had to become a "born-again" kind of convert to gluten free living.

 

 

So what did that mean? It meant that the breads that I loved were taboo. The salad dressing I loved had mustard in it. I couldn’t eat that either. I had to start scouring the health food stores to find products that were not always available on the shelves. I had to read labels on almost all of the foods I purchased, especially canned and processed foods. I had to learn how to cook from scratch! I didn’t know how to cook with or without wheat really… So this was a revelation.

 

And 20 years later, I’m still on the journey of discovery. What a remarkably expanded world of Gluten Free Cooking and Gluten Free Products has opened up in the past decade! It’s really gratifying to see. And though I grouse at times about my universally acknowledged shortcomings regarding cooking, I’ve decided to write and blog about this journey in the upcoming “Gluten-free Writers Cookbook”  It’s a journal of cooking and it started with my determination, almost 20 years ago, to cut wheat out of my diet and start living again. And though it hasn’t always been easy, I’ve never regretted the decision and I’ve never looked back.

 

 Some upcoming posts will discuss some of my GF discoveries. Next time, I’m going to look at sauces and starters. We’ve talked in the past about the basic white sauce. This is one everyone should master! But wait…there’s more! There’s a great barbeque sauce and my fool-proof hollandaise. Stay tuned, friends…



3 Tried and True Substitutes for Cream of Mushroom soup in a can

After reading and writing about the ubiquitous Cream of Mushroom soup, here’s the bottom line.

Mushroom soup is delicious, and you don’t need the soup in a can to make a good soup. Here are three tried and true substitutes for the famous Campbell’s concoction.

 

One more thing. A basic white sauce will stand in every time. It’s the baseline sauce for the good life-if you can master it, then substitute it, you can live without the Campbell’s soup in any recipe.

 

 This is a recipe for Homemade Southern Living Soup. It’s much richer than the mock version, but the mock one is also pretty good as a stand alone recipe.

NUMBER ONE: Recipe for Homemade Sthrn Living Soup: Much richer than the Mock version, but the mock one is pretty good as a stand alone dish. If you have company coming or don’t particularly care about the calorie count, this is delicious.

 1 can of  Cream of Mushroom = 1 ¼ cup of this:

 Homemade:

 

½ cup butter-divided

3 8 oz packages fresh mushrooms chopped

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 cups whipping cream

1 8oz package cream cheese

2 1 oz container homestyle chicken stock (Knorr was used to test)

 Directions: Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add the mushrooms and saute 10 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Transfer to a bowl

 

2. Reduce heat to medium. Melt remaining 5 tbsp butter in Dutch oven. Whisk in flour until smooth; whisk 1 more minute. Gradually whisk in cream and other ingredients.

 

3. Cook, whisking constantly 2 minutes or until melted and smooth. Remove from heat, stir in reserved mushrooms. Serve or cool. Freezes well; thaw and heat and serve.

 

 

 
NUMBER 2:  Here’s your basic white sauce. If you master this, you won’t care about the Campbell’s soup can anymore. *I use a Vita-Mix blender. My older one leaked, but still worked fine if you didn’t mind a small amount of seepage. But I bought a second-hand Vita-Mix blender recently, and it is wonderful! Any good blender should do the trick.

The white Sauce: 1 1/3 cups Lowfat milk-soy milk

¼ cup all purpose flour-GF

¼ cup Light butter

½ tsp salt-opt

 

*Place ingredient in blender (Vita-Mix) in order listed above. Secure the lid and start speed on low (1 on VM). Quickly increase the speed to High and blend for about 5 minutes. For Cheese Sauce:May add ½ to ¾ cup of good low-fat cheese.

NUMBER 3: MLJ’s Mock Cream of Mushroom soup-This is the best recipe I’ve found for a stand- alone soup. If I was going to make a dish using a substitute for the Campbell’s soup, I’d use the white sauce. But if you want a simple yet hearty mushroom soup, this one fits the bill. As always with good recipes, there’s some secret ingredient that makes it stand apart. In this recipe, the secret is… add a touch of Angostura bitters at the end.

Mock Cream of Mushroom soup:

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

½ to ¾ cup onion, chopped fine

¼ cup + 2 tbsp of butter light

¼ cup GF Flour

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup soy milk/1/2 cup half and half or cream*

1 tsp salt (opt)

¼ tsp white pepper

½ cup dry sherry

¼ tsp Angostura bitters

 Saute mushrooms and onion in butter in a saucepan on low for 10 minutes or until mixture is tender. Add the flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stir constantly. Gradually add the broth; cook on medium heat, stir constantly, until mix is thickened and bubbling.

Reduce heat to low; stir in remaining ingredients. Cook until heated through, stir frequently. Serve.

Yield: 1 ½ quarts

 **I use a mix of soy milk, but you can use organic cream or half and half to make it, depending on your allergy level.

 

5 Things to know about Campbell's Soup

Talking about Cream of Mushroom soup made me a bit curious. So I found out the following about the iconic Campbell’s Soup brand that we have come to know and love.

 

1.       In 1869, Joseph Campbell, who had been a fruit merchant, teamed with a man named Abraham Anderson, who manufactured tin ice boxes, to form what became the Campbell’s Soup Company in Camden, New Jersey.  Joseph soon amicably ended the partnership with Anderson and teamed with businessman Arthur Dorrance to sell a popular product called Beefsteak Ketchup Sauce.  This was nothing like our modern ketchup, as it was made with ingredients such as cinnamon, mace, cloves, pepper, mustard and vinegar with a variety of bases including soy, oyster or lobster. At the turn of the century, this was a kitchen staple.

2.       In 1893, the US Supreme Court designated the tomato a vegetable for trade purposes! Technically, the tomato still remains a fruit.

3.       Joseph Campbell retired in 1894 (after the infamous tomato fruit decision!) and died in 1900. No Campbell family members were involved in the company after his retirement.

4.       In 1894, Arthur Dorrance hired his nephew, rather reluctantly, we are told. Dr. John T. Dorrance was a chemist who developed the formula still used for commercially condensed soup.

By removing the water and reducing the volume, the price of soup went from 34 cents to 10 cents a can. The five original varieties included Tomato; Consommé; Vegetable, Chicken and Oxtail.

5.       A Slip of the Tongue: Amos & Andy promoted a new brand with lackluster sales in 1934. Amos misread the copy for “Chicken with Noodles” and instead said, “Chicken Noodle Soup.” Within days, the company received large orders for the new soup. One shift in verbiage made the difference!

GF Cooks and the Cream of Mushroom Soup Dilemma

 

 

Ah, yes! We Americans love our Cream of Mushroom soup. It’s the gloppy substance that we have come to know so well.  We rely on it to “complete” us. But there’s a love/hate relationship that lies within us regarding this ultimate American shortcut. We love our foods smothered in this creamy concoction, yet the foods we love are often unrecognizable after being covered with this soupy stuff.

The kind of food we would devour in days of yore is now found in a can. This is one of the signature ingredients in most tasty dishes that are all too easy to prepare. And my heart sinks when I see the ingredient list and the first thing to jump out of the page is the line: “1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup.” I say this knowing that if you are GF you can’t have this. It’s got wheat in it.

In my case, it’s a double whammy because I can’t have the milk either. So…what do you do? You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try like mad to find a suitable substitute for the elusive pimpernel known as Cream of Mushroom Soup.

 I remember many times watching my grandmother standing over a stove wearing an apron and stirring. And stirring. She was making a white sauce. That is the type of food that takes patience and a bit of skill to prepare. And if you are gluten-free, that is exactly what you need to replace the glorious flavor found in Cream of Mushroom soup.

 

The Vita-Mix blender does come in handy. You can whip up a white sauce fairly fast. And it does taste pretty good. Or I will "cheat" at times and use the rotation method where I simply eat off my GF diet. That can only take you so far.

 

 

 

You must be inventive and there are ways and ways to get round this. I have tried healthy organic versions of Cream of Mushroom that end up in the deep-6 file (the trash) PDQ. And then there are some cases where substitutes will work. Mayonnaise is a wonderful blend, but it’s just not the same as the cream of mushroom soup. Damn it, that goopy stuff does taste good! That’s why people like us… (by us I’m talking about lazy Americans who really don’t like to cook), use this substance. It takes a lot of the guesswork and complicated measuring out of the cooking process. You just dump it in and mix it around whatever you happen to be cooking and….voila! Supper is ready!

I still use this canned goop in some recipes. That is because I can’t find adequate substitutes that taste good and are quick and easy. So the good ol’ Cream of Mushroom soup is still in some of the holiday dishes and staples found in my upcoming cookbook. If you are severely allergic to wheat, as are those with celiac disease, then you cannot use Cream of Mushroom soup. But don’t despair. There are plenty of alternatives listed and the white sauce is better than the creamy glop. You may have to invest in a very good blender, but it will be well worth it in the end.

 

 

Introduction to the GF Writers Cooking Journal

For an introduction to a blog on cooking, one should begin with a food related story. I’ve many of those to tell, but this relates to the other end of the spectrum, my Gluten-Free life and my writing life. Many times I’ve been in company where the topic turns to food. People seem to be most excited with the latest news of the wonderful new restaurant or food trend they’ve found. No one wants the Debbie-Downer’s of the World to intervene with a comment about their own personal food intolerance. Most of the time, I just nod and sometimes interject a question or two. For example, if there is a new restaurant in town called “Dough”, I’m pretty sure that someone with gluten intolerance would have a hard time finding something to eat there. But there are times when you must act as if you are interested enough to visit a place called, “Dough”.

 

There is actually a restaurant in our city called “Dough”. But I’ve never visited the establishment. Ten or twenty years ago, there were no items on menus for Gluten Intolerant people. If you went on a cruise ship, you could eat a salad. If you went to a restaurant, you could order a salad. And if you went to a fast-food place, you could order a drink of soda or water. (I do eat the fries at McDonald’s occasionally, I confess!). But there was a no-man’s land of food establishments for those of us who couldn’t eat many of the items prepared in restaurants.

 

The one bright spot has always been health food stores. Good ol’ oat-barrel smelling, cramped little holes in the wall that contained delis where people wouldn’t look twice if you asked for quinoa or wheat-less bread. These were the places I frequented in the first ten years of my Gluten-free journey. Now, the terrain has opened up to the point that even my friendly neighborhood grocery store carries as many items as I found ten or fifteen years ago in those small little local shops. The down side is that most of the little mom and pop health food stores are no more. But, that’s the way of the world for so many of these little shops, this is just one more example.

 

Now, Gluten-free foods are found everywhere. Gluten-free items are in the forefront of many menus, and some places exclusively serve GF food. That is how far we’ve come. But I still remember the days when I struggled to find items like bread, flour, pancake mix, hamburger buns, GF graham crackers (still hit-and-miss), cookies (there has to be a reason for living), and many other items we take for granted in our kitchens and pantries.

 

When I heard that I would have to eat this way for life, or be forced to live with the pain I’d felt for almost twenty years, then there really wasn’t a choice. I knew I had to commit to changing my diet, and changing my life. Most people didn’t know that I had a special-needs diet, but close friends and family have always been key to my success. My mother, especially, was so supportive of my diet, as she knew more than anyone else the pain I’d suffered for years with a leaky gut and IBS.

 

When I did go to the doctor, they gave me pills to stop diarrhea and cramping. This was helpful, but it did nothing to address the underlying problem. In the back of my mind, I knew this, of course, but by then I was so desperate for any help at all, things like finding the root cause didn’t matter anymore. I wanted something to stop the pain. After years of struggling, from the time I was in high school until I was about 35 years old, I finally found help. A friend had recently been to see a wonderful nutritionist in our area. Her name was Betty Wedman St-Louis. Her name even sounded smart.

 Our friend, Tony, had a history of colitis, and several members of his family had died from the disease. Tony was, like me, desperate and willing to do anything at this point in his life. He swore by Betty and subsequently, I was introduced to her. She was up front about the tests I needed to take, which were expensive as they were not covered by insurance. They did a blood test and sent it off to a lab. The results were that I had a high amount of food intolerance to not only wheat and dairy, but also mustard, beans, and shrimp.

 

The beans were not that important to me. I was not surprised about being allergic to dairy either. But the shrimp and mustard bothered me. I loved shrimp, and the type of salad dressing I used was honey-mustard. In fact, mustard was an ingredient in so many sauces and foods that I ate, I had no idea of the extent they were hidden in foods. The same could be said of wheat.

 

Who knew, for example, that Rice-A-Roni had wheat in it? Or soy sauce? Or, for that matter, almost any sauce available on the commercial market. There were labels to be read, and I had to sort out what was acceptable, and what was not. For the first year, Betty gave me a couple of really great digestive enzymes to use with my meals. After doing more tests, Betty confessed that my stomach was in about the worst shape of any she’d seen. The numbers were literally off the chart, and I had to slowly rebuild the cilia and good bacteria in my gut.

I noticed improvement rapidly, but would still suffer stomach pains from time to time. After about six months, the healing process progressed to a point where there was a noticeable difference. After I ate dinner every night, I didn’t automatically experience stomach pain. That was a major breakthrough. And if you have lived with IBS or celiac disease or leaky gut, then you know what I am talking about. You don’t want to go back to the old way of living and eating. There is no choice.

 The good news is that I went to health food stores every week for many years. They were, and still are in some cases, the only places where you can find the items you need on a gluten-free diet.

The GF Writers Cooking Journal

 

 

Combating Sinusitis

I had a sinus infection this summer. Every day I’d wake up to this pounding headache! We did have terrible rainy weather for a few months. I’m not sure if that contributed to it, but nothing seemed to help. Antibiotics were not touching it-I don’t like to take them, anyway so I began to look around for a better way.

The nasal douching (with the neti-pot) was not too effective. Hot towels with vapo-rub on them seemed to help the most-night and day, day and night. On my neck, on the area above my eyes, I’d put the hot compresses on until the pounding would stop…

I also took thyroid vitamin boosters from the health food store, to help it along. It took 10 days though! Still, to wake up without the pounding behind the eyeballs was a huge relief. So what causes this chronic condition?

Sinusitis is defined as the inflammation of the sinuses. Your sinuses are located in different areas around your eyes and nose.

Our sinuses are located above the eyes, on either side of the nose, inside the cheekbones, and behind the bridge of the nose and in the upper nose.

 

What are sinuses? They are air-filled pockets in the skull connected to the nose and throat by passages designed for the sole purpose of draining away mucus. The sinuses are always the first line of defense in protecting your lungs.

 

Each individual is different, so one or another of these pockets can clog up and create problems.  Sinus passageways are small, so when the volume of mucus increases, they can easily clog. The pressure increases in the sinus region and causes pain.  Infection occurs when a sinus region is continually clogged over a long period of time.

 

Now as we head into fall, this is the time of year I begin to feel the sinus pressure again. . Now I know there are two seasons that stand out and why they are worse for my sinus condition than any other time of year.

 

The fall weather brings weeds. Ragweed, to be specific, along with different types of trees and grasses producing…

 

This is the time of year I will begin to feel the sinus pressure. Now I know there are two seasons that stand out and why they are worse for my sinus condition than any other time of year.

 

The fall brings weeds. Ragweed, to be specific, is the culprit along with different types of trees and grasses. So in the late summer to early fall season, I become susceptible to sinusitis... Ragweed is found, unfortunately, in virtually every region of the country, with 17 different species of the weed.

 

Then again in the spring, we have trees producing pollen. That is the primary cause of allergies and sinus infections at that time of year, with some southern states growing trees that produce pollen as early as January.

 

According to the LoCicero Medical group, the pollen season usually begins in April in the Northern states. The types of trees producing pollen include oak, Evergreen, Cedar, juniper, Cypress, elm, birch, olive, sycamore and poplar.

 

Acute sinusitis can be caused by bacterial or viral infections of the nose, throat, or upper respiratory tract.  Air travel sometimes leads to sinus problems relating to the changes in air pressure. Chronic sinus problems can be associated with a number of things. Small growths in the nasal region, an injury to the nose, air pollution, stress, smoking and dental complications can all lead to sinus problems. Hay fever and food allergies can also create sinus problems. The build up of mucus in the passage can easily occur from food allergies and/or changes in the weather that cause allergic reactions.

 

Sinus symptoms can cause low grade fever, coughs, headaches, earaches, toothaches, facial pain and cranial pressure, loss of the sense of smell, and tenderness over the forehead and cheekbones.

 

The following is a list of some of the most effective remedies in dealing with a chronic sinus condition.

 

The Neti pot: Recommended for daily use, the neti pot is effective at times as a way to keep the nasal passages clear. If you are not a fan of the feeling that occurs when you get a nose full of salt water in the ocean, then you will not be able to keep this regimen up on a daily basis.

 

Hot/cold compresses: To use only in the event of a sinus episode. I used this method as stated above, and had very good results. In conjunction, you should also take garlic, vitamins and/or probiotics in order to build up your immune system.

 

Acidophilus: Because of my severe food allergies, I take this on a daily basis. There are a number of good brands; you may want to check with your doctor or nutritionist to decide which is right for you.

 

Quercetin/Bromelain: So many respected alternative medicine practitioners and nutritionists recommend this combination; it is something that is well documented in the alternative health community.

 

Sinucheck from Enzyme Therapy: A brand to check out from Enzyme Therapy, one of the best companies to buy alternative meds from.

 

Colloidal Silver: Although not recommended on a daily basis, this is another well documented method of preventing infections, and does provide some measure of relief.

 

Garlic: An alternative to antibiotics, you may try the tablets, although I believe fresh Garlic is best. It may be hard to take at first, so I would suggest easing into the dosage, but I buy refrigerated garlic and find it easy to digest with soy yogurt. You may want to crush the fresh garlic up and take it with yogurt. It’s just like swallowing a pill, you do it quickly!

 

Menthol/Eucalyptus pack over the sinuses: The Eucalyptus and Peppermint herbs will always give you relief from headaches and sinus pressure.

 

Steam: It’s not hard to boil water and just put a towel over your head to get instant relief. You may put peppermint and/or eucalyptus oil in the water also.

 

Lemon juice & water in the AM: To thin mucus secretions… This is something that should be a regular part of your health routine.

 

Juicing helps: Another way to add a healthy habit to your daily routine. Juicing is always recommended to help ward off or lessen infections.

 

Fresh grated horseradish, with lemon juice: This is something I have tried. It’s effective, and like the garlic, is an acquired taste!

 

Apply Tiger Balm to sinuses: Tiger Balm is an herbal aid that should be in the medicine cabinet of those who advocate alternative healing methods.

 

Zand Decongest Herbal: Another product that Alternative Medicine Families should keep on hand.

 

Grapefruit seed extract:Dilate as a nasal rinse. This is another effective product to keep in your medicine cabinet.

 

Tea tree oil: to add to a vaporizer nightly

 

Some alternative healing methods: Massage directly underneath your big toe for 1 minute daily.

 

Also, squeeze the ends of your fingers and thumb hard-20 seconds daily.

 

Place your thumb & index finger on top of your nose-either side, for 5 seconds. Press. Repeat 3 times daily-AM-Noon-PM

 

Another method with some success: Put Vapo-rub on the bottom of the foot-the heel-wrap in sock or light cloth.

 

 

Acupuncture does work for sinus problems. Also facials, when practitioners are trained to relieve the sinus pressure points. Most reputable establishments do, and you should ask about it before making an appointment.

 

Other recommendations are to avoid milk products, smoke, and eliminate allergens in your home such as mold and dust mites.

 

**Last on the list-Endoscopic surgery: may be the last resort if all else fails. Since the sinuses are small passages that can be easily blocked if one is prone to allergies, then surgery may be required to open the narrow passageways leading to the nose.