Étiquette : celiac

Publié dans celiac disease, Recipes, Sam's adventures

Birthday Delights

Publié le par Snowrose

Last week was filled with birthday party prep! There were many birthday delights for our son! This year, we hosted a shared birthday party with one of our close family friends, and it was a huge hit! I am amazed at how quickly these kids grow up. If you aren’t a parent, the phrase “the days are long and the years are short” does not make sense. I can say with all honesty that the older Tristan gets, the faster the years seem to go by.

Today’s blog post is all about one particular birthday delight: CAKE! Like many boys his age, Tristan loves Minecraft! He had been asking for months for a Minecraft cake. We scoured the internet for inspirational ideas- and this year I jumped out of the box… box mix, that is. It has been nearly a decade since I was willing to experiment with gluten-free baking! For the most part, I have been using tried-and-true box mixes. This is not the most creative way to bake, but I cannot express how much I dislike experimenting with flour blends. The early years of my diagnosis came with baking that a friend iconically said “tasted like rice and sadness”.

A fantastic find!

In comes a fantastic find: Ardent Mills Gluten-Free Flour Blend.

I had seen this brand recommended in various Celiac groups I am in on Facebook, but had never found it at the stores nearby. I had originally planned to make the cakes with gluten-free box mixes, but the Costco near our house had it in stock! What a VALUE!! I managed to make pancakes, 4 FULL cakes, and STILL had leftover flour for 15$!! To give those who don’t have to avoid gluten an idea, each box mix usually costs 6-7$ EACH. Oh, and those boxes only include enough flour blend to make ONE slab cake OR 12 cupcakes.

I had honestly forgotten what it was like to bake in normal volume. At first, I accidentally made way too much carrot cake. Though, really, can you have too much carrot cake? We have been enjoying the extra carrot muffins all week! I made one extra cake on purpose as a gift to our family friends in thanks. It was also a hit. I admit, as I was mixing all the batter, I did question the volume. It wasn’t until I was starting to fold in the carrots that I realized where I had made the happy mistake. Gluten-free baking with box mixes NEVER yields this much.

Birthday Delights: a Minecraft Cake

Now, with white cake, chocolate cake, carrot cake, (not) Rice Krispies squares, and Jello, the cake was ready to come to life!

The cake was built in two pieces because Tristan wanted a Nether Portal on the Outworld AND the Nether. It has been a while since I have made anything this complex, but I had so much fun making it! I grew up baking every week and was hit hard when I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2012. I am so excited to keep baking with this awesome pre-made blend! It needs more liquids than regular flour, so recipes need to be modified appropriately, but that’s so much easier than figuring out the blend itself. I am so thankful that I stepped out of the box and made this cake! Tristan LOVED this birthday delight!

Publié dans celiac disease, Recipes, Sam's adventures

Belated Christmas Food Adventure: Pepperpot

Publié le par Snowrose

I have wanted to write up this post for months, but, as I mentioned in my last blog post: my great ideas were derailed. Well, now is better than never!

A grand adventure in search of nostalgia!

I grew up in Ontario and had the opportunity to visit my grandparents out in Alberta every few years for Christmas. Those years, Christmas was filled with delightful memories of family, fun, and food! We would spend part of the visit with my maternal grandpa, enjoying delicious European foods, and part of the visit at my paternal grandparents’ house enjoying family recipes from their homeland of Guayana, South America. My grandparents came to Canada when my father was 10, and brought with them long-held family traditions, including our very own pepperpot recipe. This year, I finally asked my grandparents for the recipe to make it over Christmas! Now, I am not actually giving you guys the recipe, but sharing the absolute adventure I had… of making pepperpot with celiac disease.

Pepperpot, a dish for special occasions!

For those who aren’t familiar with it, pepperpot is actually the national dish of Guayana and is commonly served for breakfast at special occasions like Christmas. While you can now buy “pepperpot” sauce from President’s Choice Brand, my grandparents heavily stressed: … that… is…. not… pepperpot. Why? Because every true pepperpot recipe contains one special ingredient: Cassareep. Cassareep is a delicious extract sourced from cassava, used in Guayanese and other South American cooking. Herein lies the heart of this food adventure. I learned the hard way that Cassareep, at least all the ones imported to Canada…. ALWAYS HAS WHEAT!

What to do?

I… doing the very best research I could, through the help of one of my best friends… erroneously attempted to MAKE my own Cassareep. Now, I learned AFTER making the sauce, that Cassareep needs to be made with bitter cassava… which… is not imported in Canada due to the high arsenic levels (which… in part are what give Cassareep the distinct flavor as the arsenic is cooked off). Did I know this? No… of course not. Thankfully, I researched this before cooking the meats, because they are stewed over the course of 3 days.

Cooking process:

Instead of leaving the stew on the stovetop like you can with real cassareep (it has preservative qualities from the cassareep), I stewed it over many hours, let it cool, and stored it in the fridge overnight. This process was repeated over 3 days leading up to Christmas.

How it turned out?

While it was not exactly true to our family’s recipe because of my own dietary restrictions, my goodness was this ever a delicious meal to have for breakfast on Christmas morning! The flavors were nostalgic despite the missing Cassareep and were honestly fairly close because of my attempt that turned into a kind of cassava sauce. The meal was shared with my in-laws and I was so happy to share such an important part of my childhood with them, but more importantly: with my son. It filled me with joy that he enjoyed the meal. It meant so much that I was able to share this special tradition with another generation!

All in all, I would say that the recipe failed successfully! It may not be the family recipe to the T, but it was the closest I could do, and look forward to making it again next year.

Publié dans Sam's adventures

What a HAPPY Mother’s Day!

Publié le par Snowrose

This weekend was an exceptional Mother’s Day!

Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all you moms out there!

I think we had an extra special day this year because unlike in previous years, there was some intentionality in planning to actually do something special. In previous years the hectic chaos of life got a bit in the way and in many ways, BOTH of our ADHD brains drop the ball HARD when chaos enters the scene. So what did we do? The day started with a relaxed morning, before heading to the bus to church for mass. Going to mass as a family is genuinely a highlight of my weekends.

After mass, we took a surprisingly gorgeous family photo by a beautiful blossoming tree, before heading for the walk home. We stopped at Timmy’s, where we grabbed some cool refreshing drinks and enjoyed the walk home… up-hill, and down-hill, as our street crests directly between our house and the church. When we got home we had a relaxed lunch before… BAKING CUPCAKES! I think decorating the cupcakes together as a family was a really fun time, and definitely something we will be doing more often. We used the Betty Crocker gluten free devil’s food cake mix, and I am happy to report that the quality on these box mixes continues to impress. The cupcakes had a good crumb, and were delicious!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Publié dans Health, Herbalism, Sam's adventures

The most helpful education!

Publié le par Snowrose

Yesterday, I received my diploma from Dominion Herbal College in the mail! I am officially a chartered herbalist. To be honest, this, of all my educational experiences had been the most satisfying, affirming, and USEFUL. I first learned about Dominion Herbal College when I was in high school, long long ago.

While it was truthfully what I wanted to learn most, as I scribbled and researched plans for a future forest garden orchard, I felt out of place applying to a college distance learning program. You see, I was in the International Baccalaureate program, and I was convinced that I ought to pursue university rather than college (in Canada there is a difference). I left off this pursuit for Linguistics and later Religious Studies… Only to come full circle in mental health and the practical application of herbs for the treatment of somatic symptoms.

This last year has been particularly tricky to juggle school with homeschooling our son, while my husband’s career change has been rocky! It offered plenty of opportunity for growth and grit. I had times where I wondered if I would be able to finish the program in time, not for lack of effort or desire, but the roller coaster of life throwing curve balls my way. In the end, I finished and feel confident that this is a very important facet of my life calling.

This isn’t why I feel this diploma is the most useful part of my education though. The most useful part? For the first time in 12 years, I have a way to treat celiac reactions! For those who aren’t familiar, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that is triggered by the ingestion of gluten. I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2012, and I’m one of those lucky ones that react to less than 10ppm and get neurological/systemic reactions. Ever lost control over the use of your mouth, hands, limbs? Well, it isn’t so fun. Up until now, literally nothing has helped. My only option has been to be very careful for cross contamination and ride the waves of excruciating pain/debilitating neurological symptoms until they finished.

No more!! I have officially, through my studies as an herbalist, found a remedy that WORKS. It is a beautiful infusion made of slippery elm, cloves, cayenne, ginger, chamomile, cinnamon and a little bit of sugar to taste. A few weeks ago I had an accidental gluten exposure, and after taking it 3 times within the following 24h I was completely symptom free. This is the most valuable thing I have learned in my whole education.