Cooking

Summer is coming and fresh vegetables — in the stores, at the farmer’s markets and in your garden — will be plentiful. It’s time for summer salads.

Try this delicious salad as a side dish or even as a main. It’s light and satisfying.

Use the ingredients list as a guide. If you don’t have peppers, use what is on hand. If you don’t like cilantro, it’s fine not to use it at all; many people don’t like it. Use any lettuce, even finely sliced cabbage. See the tip below for how to make your red onion a little mellower. Or see what’s in your fridge, open a can of black beans, defrost some corn, and you have a delicious salad great for lunch or a party. Enjoy! Read More »

PURCHASE, N.Y., April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC is launching two new health and wellness initiatives this month to address health concerns for all customers and their families. In its ongoing efforts to fight childhood obesity and help kids live healthier lifestyles, Stop & Shop announced that the first issue of its brand new Kid Healthy Ideas, a free health and wellness quarterly magazine, is now available in all stores.

The 12-page, full-color publication, is geared towards kids ages 8 to 12 and features health-related educational articles, games and recipes.

Read More »

I have often wondered what percentage of people following the gluten-free diet actually make their own bread.  I tend to use mixes to make sweet breads, but I usually buy my gluten-free bread off the shelf, or from my favorite local gluten-free bakery Pure Knead.

Most of us know that gluten-free bread has come a long way in the last five years, so there are a number of great options to be purchased at local health foods stores that don’t contain artificial ingredients and have the taste and texture of wheat-based bread.

Still, there seems to be a rising percentage of people who prefer to make their own gluten-free bread. Some of my favorite gluten-free bread mixes to use are: Read More »

OAKLAND, Calif., April 18, 2012 — Add Hidden Valley Salad Dressings to the growing list of foods to clearly call out that they are gluten free.

The makers of Hidden Valley Salad Dressings have added a “Gluten Free” logo to bottles and dry packets of its signature Original Ranch® dressing as well as much of its Farmhouse Originals product line. Packages with the new logo should appear on store shelves this summer.

The packaging change is designed to help Read More »

Gluten-free shamrock sugar cookies are buttery good, easy to make and a charmin’ St. Patrick’s Day cookie.

You will need a small (about 3/4-inch diameter) shamrock cookie cutter to use as a stencil on your cookies. If you can’t find this type of cookie cutter you can make your own stencil by tracing and cutting a shamrock shape on a plastic kitchen mat (available at most stores in housewares.)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

For this recipe, you will need:

• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract Read More »

Yes it is possible to microwave delicious puddings.

No that isn’t a typing error in the title.

When I first got married I remember someone told me how to make a sponge pudding in the microwave. This recipe became a regular treat for us and now that we have four children, this ticks all the boxes for a family pudding: cheap, very quick, and very tasty.

The good news is, it works gluten free too!

The name that the family has given this pudding over time is Two Four Two Four Pudding – when you read the (imperial) quantities for the recipe you will see why – easy to remember the quantities so that you can impress someone by making a pudding from memory! Read More »

On a recent visit to a museum, my husband and I stopped at its cafeteria for a snack. The choices were cookies and cupcakes, pretzels and potato chips, and assorted drinks.  Clearly, the cafeteria didn’t cater to those of us who are gluten-sensitive, lactose-intolerant, and/or weight watchers.

Much against my will, I bought the only snack I could tolerate although it meant throwing my diet out the window: potato chips.  And much against my dislike of being labeled a complainer, I decided to speak up.  “Would you consider carrying gluten-free products?” I asked. “I can’t eat most of what Read More »

Tom Sawyer Gluten Free Flour is giving away their .

This great resource gives you dozens of desserts, sides, breads and stuffings – pretty much everything you need to make a delicious and memorable Holiday Dinner. And while many of the recipes use , any all-purpose gluten-free flour mix should work. (Of course, they may not work as well. Tom Sawyer’s mix is absolutely excellent! We LOVE the biscuits!!)

Bread Stuffing, Grandma’s Corn Bread, Turkey Gravy, Baked Candied Sweet Potatoes, Holiday Muffins, Tom Sawyer’s Award Winning Gluten Free Angel Food Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Cake Roll and Cranberry Spice Bars are just Read More »

In my pre-coeliac days, canapés were a doddle. Even on a budget. The day before a party I would buy the cheapest bread from the supermarket, cut out as many circles of bread as I could get out of each slice, dip them in olive oil and press them into pattie tins or mini muffin tins and bake.   I would end up with hundreds of little crisp toasts that kept overnight in a sealed box ready to be topped with an array of fresh toppings throughout the evening.

These days, that isn’t an option!  Gluten free bread is too expensive to buy, too small to get more than 2 circles out of (with a lot of wastage), and frequently too crumbly to use.  Home made is better – but that is an awful lot of bread to make, slice and cut.  Just not practical – especially when you have no fridge or kitchen space – or time – for advanced prep because you are running a supperclub!

So this week I was left wondering what I could use as canapé bases for our Christmas Party that would be a) gluten free b) economical c) effective and these are my top three suggestions:

Read More »