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Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease

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Every Christmas a creative guy named Alek Komarnitsky, who has two kids with celiac disease, raises celiac awareness with Christmas lights.  Yes – I said Christmas lights. In addition to raising awareness, over $50,000 has been donated to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, due to Alek’s Controllable Christmas Lights. That is a whole lot of holiday spirit indeed!

What is unique about this light display is that online viewers have the ability to control the lights with the click of a mouse. There is even Christmas music on the website, so you can turn on a holiday tune, sit back and enjoy Alek’s Controllable Christmas Lights from the comfort of your own home.

This display is not a virtual one – people in the Lafayette, CO area can drive by and see the lights in person. Since Alek is concerned about the environment, he tries to make his display as “green” as possible. Here is his explanation of what he does to achieve that:

While people around the world (157 countries last year) enjoy seeing the lights ON, environmentalists will be happy to know that they can turn the lights OFF with a click of the mouse. Better yet, this is the 7th year I’m using Wind Power and even though that is “clean” energy, I even did a Carbon Offset contribution for the 0.6 Tons of CO2 for the ~MegaWatt-Hour of power consumed – that’s about the same as *one* cross-country airline trip. Finally, by providing viewing via webcam, you don’t need to burn fossil fuels by driving around to see Christmas lights … Al Gore would be proud!

What is really interesting to me is that many people have asked Alek if he takes donations to offset the cost of the lights (power, etc.) and he continues to reply that he does not. Talk about the holiday spirit! Alek does ask that people who are so inclined donate to the Center for Celiac Research, which is how Christmas lights help raise celiac awareness and a lot of money!

Please be aware that Alek’s controllable lights are rather addictive. There is so much to see – and in this case – there is so much to do.  In the beginning, the lights were not really controlled by online viewers, but eventually, Alek delivered what in the past had been just an illusion. To learn more about that, read this information from the Center for Celiac Research website. Certainly, not all the millions of online viewers from around the world have celiac disease and many of them have probably never heard of the condition. That’s what makes this display so magical in terms of raising awareness!

Surviving a Buffet for Thanksgiving

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You might wonder why I didn’t post this article before the recent holiday, but before this year I’d not gone to a buffet for thanksgiving (since being gluten-free) so that was not possible. This was my fifth gluten-free Thanksgiving and the first one we have eaten out for. Once I found out we were going out to eat, I had to contact the chef and find out if he knew what gluten-free meant well before Thanksgiving. If I felt confident that he knew how to feed gluten-free diners safely, we could eat there. If I didn’t, we’d need to make alternative plans for the holiday.

Thankfully, the chef knew more about what gluten-free means in terms of ingredients, preparation, and presentation than any other country club chef I’ve dealt with. There were only eight things on the salad and main tables I could not eat and four of them were bread items. Obviously, the dessert table was a different story, but I was able to have both maple crème brulee and flourless chocolate layer cake.

Many people who are gluten-free would not dare eat at a buffet of any kind, but the way a buffet is set up makes up all the difference regarding how safe buffet dining is (or isn’t). For instance, if croutons are in the middle section of a three-deep buffet dish arrangement, the odds are that some croutons were dropped into the dishes around them. Alternatively, if the croutons are at the end of the bar, there are probably not any croutons in the other dishes that are nowhere near the crouton container.

Luckily for me, the setup at our Thanksgiving meal buffet was especially friendly for anyone who had to avoid certain dishes. The only thing on the soup/salad table that contained gluten was the crostini for the smoked salmon and it was placed in a basket instead of on the fish platter. Even the butternut squash soup was gluten-free. Due to the way the hot foods were laid out on long tables with plenty of space between each of the dishes, one would be hard-pressed to use the wrong serving utensil for said dishes.

There was one snafu regarding the turkey on the buffet, but the chef advised me that he’d need to bring me turkey from the kitchen before I even saw the presentation for it. Both the regular and Cajun turkey was laid over the cornbread dressings in the serving dishes, making it unsafe for anyone with a wheat, corn or gluten intolerance to eat. Both the ham and prime rib were fine as they were both gluten-free and at carving stations. I’m not sure I’ve ever had Cajun turkey before, but I think it might be my favorite type of turkey now. It was absolutely divine!

Like most Thanksgiving, I ate too much and almost everything I had was incredible. Did I miss having pecan pie and dressing for the big dinner – or in this case lunch? Yes, in fact, I did. That’s why I took my own Honeybaked turkey, cornbread dressing, pecan pie, and mac-n-cheese to enjoy for dinner that evening. I held off on making green bean casserole with homemade fried onions until later that weekend at home.

I’ve got to say that the green bean casserole was spectacular this year because the new condensed cream of mushroom soup from Pacific Natural Foods is so delicious. Also, the homemade fried onions made with Jules Gluten Flour took the dish to a whole new level! I’m all about taking shortcuts in the kitchen on most given days, but making homemade fried onions (that are much better than the French version in a can) was well worth the thirty minutes it took to do it.

For me, Thanksgiving is partly about leftovers which you don’t get if you go out to eat. Therefore, taking my own food to enjoy at my in-laws made sense on several levels. I had what I consider a true Thanksgiving dinner (with dressing and pie) on Thanksgiving Day and had plenty of leftovers to bring home. Hopefully, all of you had a tasty gluten-free holiday meal as well!

Incredible Gluten-Free Broths

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When Dee Valdez (aka Gluten-Free Dee) represents a gluten-free product, you can bet it’s going to be a top of the line item. Dee is the person who implores us all to return bad tasting gluten-free products for a refund so that retailers will know they need to rethink their buying policies. Just because a company is big doesn’t mean their products are the best on the market. That fact became very apparent to me shortly after I began trying gluten-free replacement type foods like pizza, crackers and bagels.

Several weeks ago, a box arrived from Savory Choice. Inside the package were four small boxes of concentrated broths including chicken, beef, low sodium vegetable and low sodium chicken. There were four small pouches – or sticks – inside each small box, making the product quite environmentally friendly. There is no MSG in the concentrated broths and they are made with all natural ingredients. Each pouch makes one cup of broth when mixed with hot water.

Since I was sick with a cold the day the broths arrived, I had a cup of the Savory Choice chicken broth for lunch and I could not believe how delicious it was. Most chicken broths taste the same to me. At least they have until now. Sure, they all have a chicken flavor, but the Savory Choice concentrated broth has a very strong chicken flavor unlike other similar products. It sounds odd, but the broth was almost creamy because it was so velvety smooth.

Interestingly, the regular chicken broth contains 15 calories per cup but the low sodium version has 25. Those two flavors and the beef flavor contain 1g of fat per serving. The vegetable broth has 0g of fat and 20 calories per serving. There are a lot of recipes on the Savory Choice website, but remember to use only gluten-free ingredients if you experiment with the recipes.

It’s still relatively surprising to me that these concentrated broths taste as exceptional as they do. Whatever makes them so great is not really evident from the ingredients. Maybe it’s the simplicity of the ingredients and what is not in them that makes the products so tasty. Website excerpt:

Savory Choice® is brought to you by Savory Creations International. Founded in 2003 by a team of experts with over 30 years experience in the food industry, Savory Creations International mission is to develop, manufacture, and distribute competitively priced food products that use only the highest-quality natural flavors and ingredients.

We’re committed to delivering only “Clean Label” products that contain no chemical additives such Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), hydrolyzed vegetable proteins (HVPs), or Disodium Inosonate + Disodium Guanalate (I + G).

Savory Choice is a line of exceptional liquid broth concentrates made from natural ingredients. Developed using proprietary natural flavor technologies the result is superior taste, aroma, and overall quality.

Savory Choice products can be purchased online and orders of $25 or more qualify for free shipping. There are 4-stick and 12-stick boxes available for some of the broths. I delightedly discovered that some of the Savory Choice broths are sold at Natural Foods Warehouse in Duluth but according to this where to buy page, the concentrated broths are available at Kroger and Publix stores in GA as well.

*Special thanks to Savory Choice for my review samples and to gluten-free Dee for representing such exceptional companies!

Review: Steamer Clams from Trader Joe’s

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Most of us can appreciate food items that allow us to make easy and quick dinners. If you’re not gluten-free, there are countless items that make that possible, but for the gluten-free set, options are more limited. When I noticed that the box of Steamer Clams with garlic butter sauce in the freezer at Trader Joe’s was sporting their signature “g” symbol, I decided to buy it.

The clams are very easy to prepare. You put the frozen contents of the box into a hot pan, cover it and in about eight minutes the clams are ready. Before I started cooking the clams, I started sauteing some asparagus and boiling some Tagliatelle pasta from Schar. Because the sauce in the clam pan was so watery (and not very flavorful), I decided to mix a little pesto sauce with the cooked pasta. This last-minute decision turned out to save dinner.

All of the clams opened up during the cooking cycle and there was just a little sauce – or rather a broth – in the pan when they were ready. Clams are not my favorite type of seafood, but they’re fine to have every so often. For some reason, we have not had clams in well over a year. Even so, when I tasted the clams from Trader Joe’s, I remembered the taste of the canned clams we used to eat. Surprisingly, the canned version was better than the ones at this dinner.

The ingredients in the clams are simple and easy to pronounce. That is something I’m always looking for with prepared items. The ingredients include clams, butter, cream (milk), salt, garlic, modified cornstarch, natural butter flavor, lemon, parsley, citric acid, and spices. That sounds like something that would taste good to me. However, a blander dish of clams I’ve never had. It’s hard to believe that there was any garlic in them because they neither smelled nor tasted like that was the case.

The Schar pasta was excellent as always and it’s a good thing I’d added the pesto sauce to it before topping it with the very flavorless clams. I ate very few clams but did have a bit of extra pasta. We usually have the Schar pasta with cream or red sauce and were pleased that it was so good with very little adornment. When I say I used a little pesto sauce ­- I mean there was only a tiny bit of it.

In the past, we’ve enjoyed many prepared dinners from Trader Joe’s that are gluten-free. In fact, I think the steamer clam entree is the only one that we were not impressed even slightly with. The package says there are three 70-calorie servings in it, but it was at best two servings for us.

Friends Don’t Expect Gluten-Free Friends to Eat Gluten

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One of the most challenging things people face once they accept their new dietary guidelines is getting other people in their lives to do the same. It’s an odd concept really. Why would someone else care what you are eating? The answer to that question is long and varied and would be best answered by a therapist. However, I’ve had some experience with the subject and have heard from plenty of others that have been shocked by the reaction to their diet by friends and family members. I should add that both my family and my husband’s family were more than willing to work around my diet. Of course, by the time my first gluten-free holiday season rolled around, there were two other gluten-free people in my family.

Think about your average day. It involves food – morning, noon, and night. You might have to turn down food at work functions, business lunches, church outings, and every other social situation you can think of. It can get annoying explaining why you can’t eat something everyone is enjoying over and over again. Eventually, most of your friends will start to ‘get it’ and at least when you’re around them, no apologies (about not being able to eat something) will be needed. At least, that is true if your friends are not threatened by your diet.

The first few times a good friend invites you over (to an event that involves eating) and doesn’t have anything for you to eat, there isn’t cause for concern. Remember, we are always thinking about our food being gluten-free, but others are not obsessed with our dietary needs. The more often you’re around someone, the faster they will start to understand what being gluten-free involves. If, after a year, you’re still not being accommodated by your good friend with something safe to eat, there is probably something going on that is more their problem than yours.

Generally speaking, people like being around others that are like them. That means unhealthy people don’t necessarily want to hang out with people that are focusing on their health. When someone is told they have to eat gluten-free in order to get and stay well – and to keep from getting various cancers that untreated celiac causes – their friends might be put off by the new health kick. In fact, the friends might think the person is just going through a phase and that eventually “this too shall pass”. In other words, they assume that the gluten-free diet won’t be around by the time the holidays arrive.

When the holidays roll around and the gluten-free diet is still going strong, things can get unpleasant – especially for the gluten-free person. If someone suggests that you might give up your diet to make it easier for them for the holidays or a special event like their birthday party, a serious conversation is ordered. If your point regarding why it’s imperative you remain gluten-free does not go over well, it’s probably time to examine the friendship and consider whether it’s worth keeping or not. Friends worth having would never expect someone to eat something that would make them sick, period.