"Share Our Strength" with Gluten-Free Christmas Cake & Cookie Recipes
Want a gift idea for the person who has everything? Make a donation in that person's honor to Share our Strength: Help End Childhood Hunger in America.
I'm technically not a "food blogger," but I'm going to pretend I'm one and join a national effort by food bloggers to raise funds for the nearly 17 million kids in the United States who don't have enough food to eat, gluten-free or not.
Blogger Jennie, of In Jennie's Kitchen, has been hosting 12 Days of Sharing to support Share our Strength's Share Our Season fundraising effort. In 12 Days of Sharing, bloggers are having a cookie carnival, posting and sharing holiday cookie recipes. Most of them are not gluten-free bloggers, so their recipes aren't safe for us. Instead, for all of us with celiac disease, I'm posting links to a whole assortment of holiday baked goods from About.com guides and around the Web.
- 30 Gluten-Free Holiday Cookie and Candy Recipes
- Ginger Lemon Girl's 2007 and 2008 Gluten-Free Christmas Cookie Round-Ups
- Gluten-Free Gingerbread Men
- Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookies
- Gluten Free Bûche de Noël
- Gluten-Free Fruitcake Recipes
- Gluten-Free Christmas Recipes from Around the World
- Christmas Morning Waffles
First Gluten-Free Food Bank Launched in Colorado
Thanks to celiac blogger Dee Valdez (Gluten-Free Dee), the House of Neighborly Service in Loveland, Colorado has become the test site for a new gluten-free food bank program. Valdez intends for the program to be implemented in communities across the country. As Dee says (and as we all know), "Bread is plentiful in food banks across the county. Gluten free bread is not."
On her blog, Dee tells the story of a woman she once met. The impoverished woman was the mother of a 7 year old with celiac disease who had to choose between feeding her whole family or buying expensive gluten-free food for her sick daughter. The distraught mother said the celiac child was "just going to have to live with diarrhea."
"I was devastated by her reality," says Valdez, "so I gathered as much gluten free food as I could and left it on her doorstep. Unfortunately, my reality didn't allow me to help parents like her again, until now."
You can read more about the new gluten-free food bank on dietitian Tricia Thompson's blog and on Denver's ABC-TV Channel 7 news site.
Last year I wrote about the gluten-free food assistance program sponsored by the Palm Beach County Celiac Support Group. Programs like this are another good way to help make sure people with celiac disease aren't forced to eat food that will poison them.
Make-It-Yourself Gluten-Free Food Gifts
Homemade gluten-free food gifts are a wonderful way to bring the warmth of your kitchen to your friends and family. I've posted an article with links to a dozen do-it-yourself recipes for everything from a gluten-free sugar cookie mix in a jar, to candied nuts, chocolate bark, kettle corn, and more. Whether or not your loved ones are on a gluten-free diet, they'll all appreciate these special treats. (And you don't have to wait for the holidays -- you can bring or send these gifts at any time of the year!)
Gluten-Free Hanukah Recipes, 2009
The 8-day Jewish festival of Hanukah begins tonight. Hanukah is one of the easiest holidays for gluten-free diets. Potato latkes (pancakes), one of the classic Hanukah foods, are easy to make using gluten-free flour or potato starch. Other typical Hanukah foods are sufganiyot (jelly donuts) and chocolate candies.
In my article Gluten-Free Hanukah Recipes, I've got lots of links to recipes for Hanukah foods, including a few that are new this year. And if you're too busy or not in the mood to cook from scratch, I'll tell you about gluten-free mixes you can buy in many supermarkets. Take a look!
Gluten-Free: Heard on Twitter
Worth a visit: The new gluten-free website from General Mills, http://www.liveglutenfreely.com, has information on more than 200 gluten-free General Mills products, new product news, and recipes.
Also worth a visit: On oprah.com, Oprah Winfrey is featuring gluten-free holiday recipes from The Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, a.k.a. Shauna James Ahern and her husband, Danny.
Check the schedule: On December 10, The Dr. Oz Show will focus on celiac disease. Scheduled guests include Dr. Peter Green from Columbia University, Elisabeth Hasselbeck from The View, and a patient who's been newly diagnosed with celiac disease. (If you're newly diagnosed and would like to be on the show, too, there might still be a chance: the show is still looking for people willing to share their stories.) Unlike most TV shows, this one airs on a variety of networks, depending on which city you're in, so visit the The Dr. Oz Show website to find out what channel it's on in your area.
If you're still interested: The Elisabeth Hasselbeck plagiarism lawsuit story isn't over. The plaintiff, whose first suit was dismissed, has sued again.
Two Gluten-Free Blog Carnivals This Week
I'm happy to tell you about two gluten-free blog carnivals that were posted this week. One is the December 1st Gluten-Free Lifestyle Blog Carnival, hosted this month by Kim, the Food Allergy Coach. The other is the November issue of Go Ahead, Honey, It's Gluten-Free!, hosted this month by Elana of Elana's Pantry.
What are blog carnivals? You can learn more about them on About.com's Family Computing site, but basically, as our Guide to Family Computing explains, a blog carnival is like a special edition of a magazine, with articles that share a common theme but are written by different people. Blog carnivals reflect the combined efforts of bloggers and their communities, working together.
It's been a while since I wrote about the wonderful gluten-free and celiac disease blogs on the Web. As you may have noticed, I have a list of my favorite celiac and gluten-free blogs on my blogroll. I also have an article called Gluten-Free Cooking Blogs You Shouldn't Miss. As I've said before, if you visit these gluten-free and celiac disease blogs you'll feel instantly connected to a friendly, talented community of people who'll share their recipes and their insights about surviving gluten-free. They'll tell you stories about their lives, encourage you to socialize, and coax you to cook. Even if you don't want to cook, you'll enjoy their mouth-watering photos of homemade gluten-free foods. Also, if you'll be traveling to a strange city, take a look at the Gluten-Free City Guide, which is a map of regional celiac disease bloggers.
I Blog Gluten-Free logo created by Karina.
Recipes for Gluten-Free Turkey Leftovers
Do you have any turkey left over after your Thanksgiving meal? I've collected some great ideas for what to do with any leftover turkey, including recipes for turkey dumplings, turkey enchiladas, turkey tacos, turkey and corn soup, and more -- and all gluten-free!
The article -- What to Do with Your Gluten-Free Turkey Leftovers -- features recipes from About.com Guides and some of my favorite gluten-free bloggers. Take a look!
Update: The number of recipes and sources is increasing -- recheck the article periodically to see what's been added.
Gluten-Free? Be Careful Who You Trust.
One of the Top 10 Rules for people with celiac disease: Never take anyone else's word for what's gluten-free. Before you eat or drink something, check the label, call the manufacturer, and don't believe what some other internet user tells you in a forum or bulletin board -- even here on my site. Always double-check for yourself.
Why am I telling you this?
Recently I heard a story that horrified me. On a page on this site where readers share information on their favorite gluten-free beers, one reader had written that Moosehead beer is gluten-free. Another reader read that, went out and bought some, and then became very sick because in fact Moosehead beer isn't gluten-free at all. (I've removed that information from the page now.)
Everyone here at About.com is extremely committed to accuracy, and that's especially true for all the sites on the Health Channel. All the Guides on About.com's Health Channel (like me) are closely supervised by a Medical Review Board of physicians who check our medical material before it's allowed to be posted online. Unlike all the other Health Channel pages, however, our User Answer pages -- like the "Favorite Gluten-Free Beer" page -- are not written by a Guide and not reviewed by the Medical Board. User Answer pages are relatively new on About.com. They were introduced because we want readers to know we consider their opinions to be important, too -- but it's important for everyone to remember that User Answer pages are just that: other people's opinions and stories.
As of today, I've added the following warning to all my User Answer pages, even those that don't address food issues:
Please remember! Suggestions from others can be helpful, but comments from readers are not double-checked for accuracy. Make sure to research any suggestions before putting them to use, and always double-check the gluten-free status of any recommended product.
In the meantime, please keep on visiting our User Answer pages and sharing your experience with other readers.
- Gluten-Free Airplane Food: Reader Reviews
- Gluten-Free Summer Camp Experiences
- How Do You Cope?
- Favorite Gluten-Free Cookbooks
- Favorite Gluten-Free Pizzas
- Favorite Gluten Free Cereal
Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Links, 2009
This list of gluten-free Thanksgiving links proves that gluten-free doesn't mean turkey-stuffing-free or gravy-free or pie-crust free! Browse through these links, enjoy, and firm up your plans for a happy gluten-free Thanksgiving weekend.
- Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes from About.com (Also including: which turkey brands are gluten-free, how to keep gluten-free guests safe, vegetarian recipes, and more.)
- More Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Favorites from About.com's Gluten-Free Cooking Site
- A Gluten-Free Thanksgiving from National Public Radio
- Gluten-Free Holiday Recipes from Whole Foods
- Thanksgiving Recipes and Tips from The Gluten-Free Goddess
- Thoughts about Making Thanksgiving Gluten-Free from Gluten-Free Girl
- Options to Dine Gluten-Free on Thanksgiving from KABC-TV
- Adopt-a-Gluten-Free-Blogger Thanksgiving Edition from Book of Yum