My wife and I were remarking on how long it has been since we went out to dinner when I decided to go looking for local places that have a gluten free options.  Much to my surprise, Outback Steakhouse provides a clear and detailed menu.  Helpful hints abound for how to modify your order to make it gluten free.  One thing that surprised me, and was a bit upsetting, was to find out that Aussie fries are not gluten free.  There are consolation prizes though: Chocolate Thunder From Down Under is a decadent gluten free dessert!

http://www.outback.com/foodandmenus/pdf/glutenfree.pdf

This is an article from a while ago but is a reminder of the financial impact of living gluten free and the efforts required to work with these limitations.  Be safe and eat well.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/the-high-price-of-celiac-disease/

After reading a New England Journal of Medicine article that looked at oat consumption among celiac patients (available here) and researching for pure sources, I started to reintroduce oats into my diet.  The only brand of locally available gluten free oats that I have been able to find are those by Bob’s Redmill which are grown in dedicated oat fields and rigorously tested to be gluten free.

http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-rolled-oats.html

It has been made into crumb topping for a wide variety of fruit cobblers and crisps or cooked up over the stove top for a hot bowl of oatmeal.  Though it is only an anecdote from my own experiences, none of these foods have caused any problems for me to speak of, even though cross contamination has caused some of my worst reactions since going on a gluten-free.

As always, exercise caution as even the purest of oats can cause a reaction in some people due to a reaction to avenin. The risk appears to be 1 patient in 165, so check with your doctor before adding oats to your diet.

If you want more information about the R5 ELISA test used to check for gluten in Bob’s GF oats, the following link is helpful:

http://www.medwire-news.md/news/article.aspx?k=41&id=39126

This has quickly become the new favorite dessert in our house, surpassing even my New York style cheesecake.  Peeling and slicing all of the apples can be time consuming, but overall it is a fairly simple. As the apples bake the released juices form a nice syrup in the bottom of the pan that is great over vanilla ice cream.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.  As always, be safe and eat well.

Filling:

12 large baking apples.
1/2c dried fruit.  Lately I’ve been using zante currants and dried cranberries.
1/2c brandy.
1c demerara sugar.
2T apple pie spice.
2T lemon juice.

Topping:

1c Oatmeal.  I have had no issue with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats.
1 stick butter.
1/2c brown sugar.
2T gluten free flour.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9×13″ pan.
2.  In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients and mix until they resemble large coarse crumbs.
3.  In a large bowl mix everything but the apples and set aside.
4.  Core, peel, and slice the apples 1/4″ thick.
5.  Toss apples well with the sugar, fruit, and brand mixture.
6.  Spoon into the baking pan and cover with topping.
7.  Bake until the apples are tender, about 30-45 minutes.
8.  Serve immediately and enjoy.

http://www.farmshow.state.pa.us/

This is a great event.  Family friendly, great exhibits, and the food court is to kill for, though may give you a heart attack.  For anyone who is thinking of goingp some things to check out:

Lancaster Farming.  You can get a free issue at their stand which is worth checking out.  This is an excellent weekly newspaper about agriculture.  Though the focus is primarily PA and the surrounding areas, it also addresses national and world issues.  The latest issue has an excellent article on antibiotic resistance in animals and how it is effecting people.  Also opinion pieces about food security.

Milkshakes.  All the way down on your left when you enter the food court from the main exhibit hall.  Chocolate.  Vanilla.  Black and White.  You can’t go wrong.  Stand in line and wait it out.  They are worth it.

Fries.  These are immediately on your left when you enter the food court from the main exhibit hall.  This line moves quickly.  Even if you see it wrap halfway across the floor, you won’t be standing there long.

Fried veggies.  Directly across from the milkshakes.  You get a lot for the money and the onion rings are outstanding.  Mild onions with a slightly sweet batter.  Mmmm.

The Junior Rodeo.  There are two shows of the Pennsylvania High School Rodeo on opening day.  Go out and support the kids who do it, they put on a great show and work real hard.  Doing well here can earn them points towards a spot at the national competition.  There is no prize money for them plus they pay $50 per event they participate in.  Go out and give them the biggest applause and roar of the crowd you can.  It is their biggest reward.

The Professional Rodeo.  This rounds out the week and is on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  Tickets are reasonable at $15 for general admission and $25 for “VIP Gold Seating”.  On Thursday only children 12 and under are just $5.  I do recommend the upgrade to Gold Seating if it is in your budget because you are looking down directly onto the rodeo floor from the sides, like if you have 20-20 yard seats at a football stadium.  The rest of the seating curves around then ends and isn’t as good if the cowboys are pushed to the walls.

One final note: Parking prices have been raised this year to $10 per vehicle, so if you are going make sure to carpool.

After running out of pre-mixed Apple Pie Spice while making an apple cobbler I scrambled to find something to let me finish the recipe in time for New Years.  Some searches brought up a few different variants so I pulled a little from some and more from another and came up with the following.  If you use fresh ground nutmeg, it can be a bit piquant. Should you want something smoother, use pre-ground that has had some time to mellow.

4 parts Cinnamon
2 parts Nutmeg
1 part Allspice

I enjoyed this article for it’s light discussion on the ethics of eating meat but found that Jennie Yabroff’s final paragraph turned towards juvenile condescension.  You can blame that on my love of Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbooks, even if I’d never cook from it, Frances Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet, and a desire to see an end to factory farming.

My family will continue eating meat and look forward to the day it comes from our own animals.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/228720

Every January 1st of my childhood began with the smell of pork and sauerkraut.  While I was blissfully asleep, my mother would wake up early to put a pork roast in a crockpot with a few bags of Silver Floss sauerkraut and toss in a silver dollar.  Set to low and allowed to cook for hours, by our mid-afternoon meal the pork would be fall apart tender and the kraut would have mellowed considerably.  Though we all ate it for good luck, whoever had the silver dollar scooped on their plate was said to have the best fortune of all that year.

My wife and I carry on this tradition though without the silver dollar.  Instead, we open our home to friends and family to feed them as many steaming plates of pork and saurkraut with mashed potatoes as they can handle with something sweet for dessert. This year I served an apple cobbler with brandied fruit, the latest family signature recipe.

In all we entertained 6 people in addition to ourselves.  I look forward to watching that number grow in future years.

What New Year food tradition does your family have?