This summer I have read article after article on the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiencies in American woman. We all know that calcium is important for strong bones and teeth, but vitamin D is important for calcium absorption. You don’t want your daily calcium coming from your bones so having the daily dose of calcium is so important to preventing osteoporosis. As a celiac, I have been very careful the past ten years to make sure I was getting plenty of calcium daily and doing weight bearing exercise for bone health.
I have never even worried about vitamin D because I am an outdoorsy person—tennis, swimming, walking—and I assumed I received plenty of vitamin D through sunlight. I am not a milk drinker, but I take a calcium supplement that has vitamin D in it.
I went in for some standard blood work for an upcoming physical and all was well, except my doctor said that I was vitamin D deficient! I guess the sunscreen I wear 365 days a year was really working. The funny thing is that I still have my “SPF 50” tan and the dermatologist still looks at me cross eyed when I walk in to her office with skin in a golden honey hue.
So to prevent one problem, I have created another. I guess that is the way it goes with health and prevention. Now I need to take even more vitamin D in supplement form and I’m trying to choke down a little more milk (yuck) every day. I don’t want to forgo my sunscreen though, having freckles removed is low on my list of fun things to do.
Kendall Egan
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Dinner's ready, gluten-free that is!
As part of my plan to learn how to cook while home from college this summer, I attempted to prepare my first, real complete dinner meal last week.
I made Chicken Satay with Peanut sauce, which seemed like a good choice because I wanted something simple but more interesting than plain grilled chicken.
It was a bit of a risk because I get squeamish touching uncooked meat. Actually, once I see raw meat I have trouble eating it even after it’s cooked. I know that if I want to learn to cook – I’m not a vegetarian and don’t have trouble eating meat others make – I have to get over it.
I started preparing the meal around 4 pm, mixing together sauce and cutting the chicken while holding it down with a fork so that I didn't have to touch it. Then I put the raw chicken into a Ziploc bag with the sauce and refrigerated it. Two hours later I took out the chicken, stuck a few pieces together on skewers and put it on the grill. The recipe said to leave the chicken on for about four minutes, but I ended up keeping it there for close to twenty. With the chicken pushed together on skewers it didn’t cook as fast as the recipe said it would. When it was finally done, I spread on a peanut sauce I had made while the chicken was cooking.
For a side dish I made Hamburger Helper's gluten-free fried rice. I left out the chicken in the recipe on the box since I was serving it with the Chicken Satay. Overall I thought that the fried rice was pretty good.
The Chicken Satay was a little less tasty to me. If I ever make it again I would not put the chicken on skewers or add the peanut sauce at the end. The skewers took too much effort and time. While grilling the chicken, the skewers burnt and broke off so that I had the stick new skewers in most of the pieces at the end anyway. The sauce was a little too spicy and thick for me. Changing the sauce recipe by adding more water and less crushed red pepper could help fix that.
I made the dinner for my whole family and my mom said that she liked the meal a lot, but that might have had more to do with the fact that she didn't have to cook for once.
While the recipe was a change from plain chicken and rice, I can't say that I would definitely make it again. At school I know I would not have enough time.
But I did learn a few things, like the fact that sometimes you have to change a recipe a little to make it work for you. I also found out not everything will go smoothly.
Don't worry, though. I am not giving up in my attempt to learn how to cook. Next time I think I will stay away from meat – just not ready for it yet. I found a recipe for Spinach, Pear Panini that sounds pretty good. I’ll let you know my next experience in the kitchen goes.
Amanda
I made Chicken Satay with Peanut sauce, which seemed like a good choice because I wanted something simple but more interesting than plain grilled chicken.
It was a bit of a risk because I get squeamish touching uncooked meat. Actually, once I see raw meat I have trouble eating it even after it’s cooked. I know that if I want to learn to cook – I’m not a vegetarian and don’t have trouble eating meat others make – I have to get over it.
I started preparing the meal around 4 pm, mixing together sauce and cutting the chicken while holding it down with a fork so that I didn't have to touch it. Then I put the raw chicken into a Ziploc bag with the sauce and refrigerated it. Two hours later I took out the chicken, stuck a few pieces together on skewers and put it on the grill. The recipe said to leave the chicken on for about four minutes, but I ended up keeping it there for close to twenty. With the chicken pushed together on skewers it didn’t cook as fast as the recipe said it would. When it was finally done, I spread on a peanut sauce I had made while the chicken was cooking.
For a side dish I made Hamburger Helper's gluten-free fried rice. I left out the chicken in the recipe on the box since I was serving it with the Chicken Satay. Overall I thought that the fried rice was pretty good.
The Chicken Satay was a little less tasty to me. If I ever make it again I would not put the chicken on skewers or add the peanut sauce at the end. The skewers took too much effort and time. While grilling the chicken, the skewers burnt and broke off so that I had the stick new skewers in most of the pieces at the end anyway. The sauce was a little too spicy and thick for me. Changing the sauce recipe by adding more water and less crushed red pepper could help fix that.
I made the dinner for my whole family and my mom said that she liked the meal a lot, but that might have had more to do with the fact that she didn't have to cook for once.
While the recipe was a change from plain chicken and rice, I can't say that I would definitely make it again. At school I know I would not have enough time.
But I did learn a few things, like the fact that sometimes you have to change a recipe a little to make it work for you. I also found out not everything will go smoothly.
Don't worry, though. I am not giving up in my attempt to learn how to cook. Next time I think I will stay away from meat – just not ready for it yet. I found a recipe for Spinach, Pear Panini that sounds pretty good. I’ll let you know my next experience in the kitchen goes.
Amanda
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Trend is “bite sized”
Small plates, tapas, bite sized portions are a huge trend right now. It could almost be called a “right sized” portion after years of “supersize me.” Pamela’s Products annual recipe contest for 2010 reflects this new idea by casting a net far and wide for gluten-free mini-creation using Pamela’s Products.
Scratch chefs have until August 16th at 11:59pm PST to submit new recipes using something from Pamela’s Products. Look to the website for the entry form, www.pamelasproducts.com.
Here is my idea…mini chipwhiches! I would use the Simplebites chocolate chip cookies and sandwich vanilla ice cream in the middle and roll the edges in mini-chocolate chips. Simple, bite-sized and delicious.
What I’m hoping is that someone submits a recipe for a slider bun. I think sliders are the most sublime bite size burger going. How fabulous does a mini-bacon cheeseburger with sautéed onions and a toasted bun sound? I’m sure more inventive people could come up with better toppings, but the novelty would be to enjoy a slider with a bun for a change.
Maybe even some maple-walnut silver dollar pancakes or a twist on mini-cupcakes….the possibilities are endless! We’ll know soon enough what bite sized entry captures the Pamela’s panel of judges’ taste buds. The recipes will be featured on the website and in the newsletter.
I can’t wait to find out who wins.
Kendall Egan
Scratch chefs have until August 16th at 11:59pm PST to submit new recipes using something from Pamela’s Products. Look to the website for the entry form, www.pamelasproducts.com.
Here is my idea…mini chipwhiches! I would use the Simplebites chocolate chip cookies and sandwich vanilla ice cream in the middle and roll the edges in mini-chocolate chips. Simple, bite-sized and delicious.
What I’m hoping is that someone submits a recipe for a slider bun. I think sliders are the most sublime bite size burger going. How fabulous does a mini-bacon cheeseburger with sautéed onions and a toasted bun sound? I’m sure more inventive people could come up with better toppings, but the novelty would be to enjoy a slider with a bun for a change.
Maybe even some maple-walnut silver dollar pancakes or a twist on mini-cupcakes….the possibilities are endless! We’ll know soon enough what bite sized entry captures the Pamela’s panel of judges’ taste buds. The recipes will be featured on the website and in the newsletter.
I can’t wait to find out who wins.
Kendall Egan
Monday, August 2, 2010
Gluten-Free Tastykake?!
I have exciting news for anyone who lives near a Rita's Italian Ice.
Rita's just introduced a Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet cream ice flavor. And yes it’s……GLUTEN FREE!
The Rita's website does not have the allergen information for this flavor yet, but my summer job for the past few years has been serving up Italian ice on hot and sunny days so I was able to sneak a peek at the ingredients for the ice.
I was surprised that the Tastykake ice is gluten free because the Birthday Cake cream ice does have wheat flour in it. (Most Rita's products are gluten free besides the ices that contain things like cookies and the Blendini's that have cookies or pretzels. You can check most allergen information on their website.)
I’ve had never had a Tastykake before so I was very excited to go to work and taste one without the gluten and with a lot less of the fat and calories. I can’t tell you how close the taste is to an actual Tastykake, but the other ices associated with products, like the Swedish fish and Peeps ices, taste just like the real thing.
To me the Tastykake ice was creamy and sweet and that is how I imagine a butterscotch krimpet would taste.
Not all of the customers that I waited on loved it though. Some people thought it didn’t have a lot of flavor while others said it was too sweet.
You can taste the ice before you buy it. Just ask the worker waiting on you for a sample.
Let me know if you try the Tastykake Krimpet Cream Ice and how you like it!
Amanda
Friday, July 30, 2010
Chelsea Clinton's gluten-free cake
On the Today show this morning there was more discussion of Chelsea Clinton's gluten-free wedding cake.
Today's Natalie Morales, reporting from Rhinebeck, NY, where the wedding is expected to take place this weekend, was interviewing some local officials and a celebrity wedding planner.
Morales asked the wedding planner if the cake was going to be vegan. The wedding planner said it's pretty certain the cake will be gluten free. "We don't know about the taste," he quipped.
So we'd like to weigh in and say that Chelsea's reported 400 guests need not worry that the wedding cake will be lacking in taste. Gluten-free cakes have improved so much in recent years that we suspect those who have scored an invite to what Today called the "the event of the summer" won't even notice.
In fact, if there is a spare invite laying around we have a few staffers who live close enough to get to the reception, take a taste and give it an honest review!
Ok, so that's not going to happen. Instead we'll extend good wishes to the couple, to their parents and to everyone who is lucky enough to get a bite of that gluten-free cake!
In addition to the show's report, Today's website has a story about how Chelsea's decision to have a vegan and gluten-free wedding may have a trickle down effect.
Chelsea is said to have a gluten allergy. With the growing number of people following the gluten-free diet because they have celiac disease or are gluten intolerant, we suspect some of her guests will be grateful that they, along with the bride, can eat the cake.
Amy
Today's Natalie Morales, reporting from Rhinebeck, NY, where the wedding is expected to take place this weekend, was interviewing some local officials and a celebrity wedding planner.
Morales asked the wedding planner if the cake was going to be vegan. The wedding planner said it's pretty certain the cake will be gluten free. "We don't know about the taste," he quipped.
So we'd like to weigh in and say that Chelsea's reported 400 guests need not worry that the wedding cake will be lacking in taste. Gluten-free cakes have improved so much in recent years that we suspect those who have scored an invite to what Today called the "the event of the summer" won't even notice.
In fact, if there is a spare invite laying around we have a few staffers who live close enough to get to the reception, take a taste and give it an honest review!
Ok, so that's not going to happen. Instead we'll extend good wishes to the couple, to their parents and to everyone who is lucky enough to get a bite of that gluten-free cake!
In addition to the show's report, Today's website has a story about how Chelsea's decision to have a vegan and gluten-free wedding may have a trickle down effect.
Chelsea is said to have a gluten allergy. With the growing number of people following the gluten-free diet because they have celiac disease or are gluten intolerant, we suspect some of her guests will be grateful that they, along with the bride, can eat the cake.
Amy
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
“Beer Me”
It’s always fun when an event you planned months in advance works out perfectly, that was last night. My husband and I had tickets to see Sting with the Philharmonic Orchestra at Jones Beach Theater. For those of you outside this area, it’s an outdoor amphitheater. Jones Beach Theater is an intimate setting that is heavily dependent on weather.
Summer nights have been beastly hot this year and three weeks ago, an outdoor summer concert would have been a breeze-less, unpleasant, sweat fest. Not last night, it was cool and dry with a lovely breeze and a huge, reddish-orange full moon that rose behind the stage and cast a glimmer on the water.
Back up a few hours, it was my husband’s intent to take most of the day and hang at the beach, have a picnic dinner and then go to the concert…but as Murphy’s law would have it, life got in the way of that all day plan at the beach.
We got a late start, like 4pm, driving to Long Island. Those of you who live here know that we sat it a lot of traffic to get to the beach. Once we arrived, the stress melted away. I dug my toes in the sand and enjoyed the cool, salty breezes. The water was pleasant and after an hour of chatting and reading magazines, I turned to my husband and said “beer me.”
It’s a college phrase, or it was in my day, meaning “please open up a beer for me.”
I earned a big eye roll for that, but he did pop open a Bard’s Beer for me. Does it get any better than this? A beautiful evening, good company, lots of good snacks and a well chilled beer on the beach (of course, poured into a cup so as not to flout any open container rules).
I like this beer, it’s got a great color and great taste. Plus, as beer aficionados, the founders of Bard’s Beer, Craig Belser and Kevin Seplowitz, have a great story. Their website promotes the theory of great conversation over a cold beer, which they have made available for the growing number of celiac beer aficionados.
So I may have gotten a little ‘tude for my “beer me” comment, but I also got a great beer to compliment a great evening.
Kendall Egan
Summer nights have been beastly hot this year and three weeks ago, an outdoor summer concert would have been a breeze-less, unpleasant, sweat fest. Not last night, it was cool and dry with a lovely breeze and a huge, reddish-orange full moon that rose behind the stage and cast a glimmer on the water.
Back up a few hours, it was my husband’s intent to take most of the day and hang at the beach, have a picnic dinner and then go to the concert…but as Murphy’s law would have it, life got in the way of that all day plan at the beach.
We got a late start, like 4pm, driving to Long Island. Those of you who live here know that we sat it a lot of traffic to get to the beach. Once we arrived, the stress melted away. I dug my toes in the sand and enjoyed the cool, salty breezes. The water was pleasant and after an hour of chatting and reading magazines, I turned to my husband and said “beer me.”
It’s a college phrase, or it was in my day, meaning “please open up a beer for me.”
I earned a big eye roll for that, but he did pop open a Bard’s Beer for me. Does it get any better than this? A beautiful evening, good company, lots of good snacks and a well chilled beer on the beach (of course, poured into a cup so as not to flout any open container rules).
I like this beer, it’s got a great color and great taste. Plus, as beer aficionados, the founders of Bard’s Beer, Craig Belser and Kevin Seplowitz, have a great story. Their website promotes the theory of great conversation over a cold beer, which they have made available for the growing number of celiac beer aficionados.
So I may have gotten a little ‘tude for my “beer me” comment, but I also got a great beer to compliment a great evening.
Kendall Egan
Monday, July 26, 2010
Home Grown Tomato
I have lived in my house for fifteen years and have tried to grow things requiring “full sun” for every single one of those years. You would think after wasting all of that money on plants I would come to realize that I have one of the shadiest yards in this neck of the woods.
Growing my own vegetables? Not going to happen on a few scant hours of sunlight per day. However, there is one spot that gets an ample amount of dappled sunlight the entire day and that is the table on my little patio. Last year I grew lettuce in planters. This year I figured I would try tomatoes.
Stop and Shop sells these planters that contain a tomato plant with a cage, basil and marigolds for approximately $20 and I figured that even if I only managed to ripen the two little green tomatoes that were on the plant when I bought it, it would be worth it to have two home grown tomatoes.
This summer has been so brutally hot that the tomatoes ripened quickly and a few more sprouted. I have to admit that I have watered diligently and fussed over them daily. Over the weekend I decided it was time to eat them.
Tomatoes grown in this heat have an indescribable sweetness to them and I was tempted to just sprinkle with salt and eat, but decided to use my tomatoes on one of my favorite sandwiches…a grilled cheese.
I had never imagined that a grilled cheese with tomato could be so tasty, but I discovered it at the Stewart Dining Hall at Boston College my freshman year. In all honesty, that sandwich was one of the many reasons I returned home with a large spare tire around my mid-section and a big butt. My friends and I ordered grilled cheese and tomato, French fries and a Diet Coke from “Large Marge” (the dining hall cashier) on a daily basis.
Good times, good times…thank you for indulging my walk down memory lane. I picked one of the ripe tomatoes and didn’t even need to wash it since it was still wet from a morning thunderstorm. I sliced off the bottom, sprinkled it with salt and ate it.
I made paper thin slices with the rest of my tomato and paired them with smoked mozzarella and two big slabs of gluten-free bread. I should have brushed the bread with olive oil for the full Italian theme, but I reached for the mayonnaise. Even though I am not a big fan of mayonnaise, it is the best fat to use to make crispy bread on a grilled cheese.
A few minutes in a hot fry pan and lunch was served. It really was good the BC dining hall way on white bread with American cheese, but fancied up and turned into a gluten free lunch didn’t change how really, really good that sandwich tastes. I can’t wait for the rest of them to ripen.
Kendall Egan
Growing my own vegetables? Not going to happen on a few scant hours of sunlight per day. However, there is one spot that gets an ample amount of dappled sunlight the entire day and that is the table on my little patio. Last year I grew lettuce in planters. This year I figured I would try tomatoes.
Stop and Shop sells these planters that contain a tomato plant with a cage, basil and marigolds for approximately $20 and I figured that even if I only managed to ripen the two little green tomatoes that were on the plant when I bought it, it would be worth it to have two home grown tomatoes.
This summer has been so brutally hot that the tomatoes ripened quickly and a few more sprouted. I have to admit that I have watered diligently and fussed over them daily. Over the weekend I decided it was time to eat them.
Tomatoes grown in this heat have an indescribable sweetness to them and I was tempted to just sprinkle with salt and eat, but decided to use my tomatoes on one of my favorite sandwiches…a grilled cheese.
I had never imagined that a grilled cheese with tomato could be so tasty, but I discovered it at the Stewart Dining Hall at Boston College my freshman year. In all honesty, that sandwich was one of the many reasons I returned home with a large spare tire around my mid-section and a big butt. My friends and I ordered grilled cheese and tomato, French fries and a Diet Coke from “Large Marge” (the dining hall cashier) on a daily basis.
Good times, good times…thank you for indulging my walk down memory lane. I picked one of the ripe tomatoes and didn’t even need to wash it since it was still wet from a morning thunderstorm. I sliced off the bottom, sprinkled it with salt and ate it.
I made paper thin slices with the rest of my tomato and paired them with smoked mozzarella and two big slabs of gluten-free bread. I should have brushed the bread with olive oil for the full Italian theme, but I reached for the mayonnaise. Even though I am not a big fan of mayonnaise, it is the best fat to use to make crispy bread on a grilled cheese.
A few minutes in a hot fry pan and lunch was served. It really was good the BC dining hall way on white bread with American cheese, but fancied up and turned into a gluten free lunch didn’t change how really, really good that sandwich tastes. I can’t wait for the rest of them to ripen.
Kendall Egan
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