State College Celiac Support Group with guest Lisa Lundy

Tonight I attended the State College Celiac Support Group meeting.  Lisa Lundy, author of Super Allergy Girl, presented a guide to Allergy and Gluten Free Cooking to our group.  It was really nice having Lisa come speak with our group and it was nice to finally meet her .  If you remember from one of my Allergy Free White Cake post, she suggested a recipe to try when I was making the allergy free cake for my friends daughter.

Lisa's presentation was good. I was surprised to learn just how many studies have been done and the amount of research being associated with Celiac Disease (CD) in the past few years.  It is obvious that CD is main stream and more people are becoming aware of it.   I appreciated her taking the time to come visit with our group.

Tonight's meeting had an attendance of 22 people, of which 4 faces were at the meeting, hope those individuals enjoyed the meeting.  Heidi stated that we now have 50 people on our groups yahoo list server, woohoo!  This is pretty awesome.

Product Samples at the meeting tonight included:

• Allergy Free Homebaked Goods - Thanks Lisa Lundy


• GF Betty Crocker mini iced chocolate cupcakes - Thanks Janelle


• GF Bread, Graham Crackers, and Cheese Crackers - Thanks Grainless Baker


• Living Without Magazines (April/May Issue) - Thanks Living Without and Ken for making the effort to get the free copies

It was a great meeting and thanks again goes out to those that helped make it happen.

Speaking of Celiac research and awareness... tomorrow (3/18) there are two seminars happening in Happy Valley:

1. Penn State University's Food Sciences Department will be having a seminar tomorrow afternoon @ 4:30pm; Celiac Disease: How Nutrition Can Go From Joy to Nightmare, presented by Alessio Fasano, MD, professor of pediatrics, medicine, physiology; and director, Mucosal Biology Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.


2. The Mount Nittany Medical Center is also having an educational seminar tomorrow night @ 6:30pm; How to Identify A Clinical Chameleon: A Focus on Celiac Disease,  also presented by Alessio Fasano, MD.  If you can make it, check it out, besides its FREE (for a fee you can go early 6pm and enjoy a gluten free buffet).

Visit to Curiosity Connection

Being winter time here, there isn't really a lot to do in the winter for the kids (unless it snows).  So over the weekend we took a road trip down to Harrisburg to check out the State Museum's Curiosity Connection for kids.  Curiosity Connection is a hands on play environment for kids ages 1-5 and their families.  Time slots of 1 hour throughout the day have been created to provide an equal play opportunity, so we planned on attending the 2:30-3:30pm one.

We arrived at downtown Harrisburg around 2pm and found street parking (is free on the weekends).  Walked to the museum, and got our tickets for the play session ($5/person), and didn't have to wait to long until it was our turn to go in.

Gluten-Free Stuffed Pasta Shells

Some of you may have saw my tweet the other night about Casey making gluten-free stuffed shells for me and I wanted to share a photo of them.  These are really good.

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Ingredients:

• 1 box of Tinkyada Brown Rice Grand Shells Cooked


• 4 cups ricotta cheese


• 2 cups mozzarella cheese


• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese


• 3 eggs


• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley


• 3/4 tsp oregano


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/4 tsp pepper


• 3 cups favorite pasta sauce

Cooking Temp and Time: 350F for 35 mins

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls

So over the weekend I tried a cinnamon roll recipe from another one my gluten free cook books, Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg.  Casey was especially excited to try out this recipe since I found a forum post with photos of the process and results.

As with most recipes in the Gluten Free Kitchen, the flour combinations are extremely simple using common flours available at most local grocery stores.

Anyhow, below is a photo of the finished product.  If you get a chance try this recipe out, you won't be disappointed, and be sure to follow the instructions on the forum post. The post author showed a sweet trick (thanks to Alton Brown) to rolling the dough so that you don't have to touch it by hand.

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Allergy Free White Cake

I am trying to make a cake for my good friend's daughter.  She has many food allergies, including wheat, eggs, and dairy.  I tried one recipe a couple weeks back and wasn't pleased with the texture of the end product, it had great flavor, but it was very dense.  I just had to find a better recipe.

I have been reading about whacky cake recipes online and how they were popular during the depression when people didn't have extra cash for things like milk and eggs.  I actually remember these cakes from my days in grade school.  The whacky cake recipes produced cakes that were great tasting and very moist.  Now, if I could just  fine one catering to a gluten free diet, I would be set.  After several nights looking, I finally found one, Kathy P's Wacky Cake recipe.

Tonight I tried out Kathy P's Wacky Cake recipe and was very pleased with the results!  The cake was very moist and wasn't dense.  The cake was still heavier than a traditional cake, but that's to be expected when cooking gluten free.  I also managed to get a tiny taste when I trimmed down the crown of the cake for stacking it.  The taste was also yummy, score!

I also bought some Cherrybrook Kitchen Vanilla Frosting (completely allergy free).  I guess I can't have it all... the  frosting was extremely thick and almost like glue.  At one point, I thought it was going to rip the top off the cake when I pulled my knife across it.  On a plus side, it had good flavor, but working with the frosting was a nightmare compared to normal frostings.  I think I am going to need to try and make a frosting from scratch so I can get the right consistency.

The important part is that I finally found the cake recipe I am going to use.  Thanks Kathy Przywara, your recipe is going to make a little girl very happy for her 3rd birthday!

Tyler Potty Time

So, as many parents know, there are unique events that occur with your children that are worth celebrating.  Two nights ago was one of those events for Casey and I.  Tyler managed to go #1 and #2 in his potty!!!  We were hoping Tyler would eventually do it.  He really enjoys sitting on his training potty, but has never done any real business other than rip off the potty's pee shield.

Good job little man!

Mini Monster March

Tonight Casey and I took Hailey and Tyler to Wegmans to check out the Mini Monster March.  It was a lot of fun for Hailey and Tyler.  Both got a bag with some goodies, plus there were games and snacks throughout the store.  We definitely had a good time, thank you Wegmans!

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