Photo of the Day

Day 056/365
Originally uploaded by cookprosser

No digital trickery here!

A New GF Soy Sauce!

Alison at Sure Foods Living blog has news of a new gluten free soy sauce from Kikkoman. I'll be looking for this in my local stores. I wonder how it will compare with the San-J Soy Sauce.

Yes, I Am Going to Eat That!

Carrie over at Ginger Lemon Girl has an amazing looking recipe for a flexible one-pot quinoa  meal. She gives options for making the recipe Asian, Italian, or Mexican. I can't wait to try it. I'm always looking for ways to use my Bob's Red Mill Organic Quinoa.

Free GF Round-Table Discussion

Erin at Gluten-Free Fun has the details of an upcoming free event in the Boston area.

I look forward to hearing about it!

Need a New Camera? How About $80 for 12 Megapixels?

Amazon has a 12.0MP camera for $80 with free shipping. Sure, why not?

What GF to eat at Taco Bell?

photo © 2008 Like_the_Grand_Canyon | more info (via: Wylio)
Taco Bell has been in the news recently because they are being sued over the term "taco meat filling."

It has been years since I have eaten at Taco Bell. I can't say that I miss it. Sure, convenience is sometimes a nice thing, but not worth sacrificing quality. Still, I like to know what options I have at my disposal should I ever have NO other choices available to me. So, what would I, as a Celiac, be able to eat at Taco Bell?

It's a short list: the tostada, mexican rice, and pintos 'n cheese. The two salsas to AVOID are the Border Sauce-Fire and the Green Tomatillo Sauce. Oddly, the allergens list from the Taco Bell website lists Wheat but not Gluten as present in the Border Sauce-Fire.

Hydrolyzed Wheat Flour, Yummy!

ADVERT FAIL

Well, this story has been making the rounds in the blogosphere (here, here, and here). According to an article in the Jan 2011 issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, it may be safe for persons with Celiac disease to consume hydrolyzed wheat flour.  Mmm, sweet tasty hydrolyzed wheat flour. It's what's for dinner!

It is quite staggering the lack of analysis on what this actually means. The non-expert like me would like to understand what this means for those with Celiac. The phrase "prolonged trials have to be planned" suggests to me that this means no significant change for the gluten free diet in the near future.


The screenshot above is the unfortunate advertisement from a website citing this recent study. If you can't see the image in the advertisement, it is for Domino's Pizza. This is what the kids would call a FAIL.

Photo of the Day

Day 048/365
Originally uploaded by cookprosser

from my Flikr Photostream

This photo was taken with a Canon 7D with the following settings:
aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 10 seconds

Gluten free products always on hand

In this inaugural edition of Gluten Free On Hand (GFOH), I consider one of the gluten free grocery items that I tend to always have in stock or on the grocery list.

Lifeway lowfat Kefir, cherry or strawberry.

As someone with Celiac, I am constantly aware of my digestive status. How am I today? Grumbly? Settled? Disastrous? If I am anything but settled, I do everything I can to get back to settled. I have found that I feel better if I include Kefir in my daily routine. I tend to drink it as a mid-morning snack. Look, I'm no dietitian or nutritionist. I cannot evaluate the scientific validity of the claims by Lifeway. I can only say how I feel when I include it as part of my regular routine. The back of the bottle lists twelve active cultures. I won't bore you with them here. I only recognized L. acidophilus. Setting aside the potential health benefits, I simply like the way it tastes and how it gets me through a hungry morning. It used to be narrowly available in grocery stores, but now it seems like I see it in every store.

Of course, the lowfat Kefir is gluten free (not dairy free; sorry dairy free folks). And they have even started putting a gluten free sticker on the lid. I love seeing those words big and bold on product packaging. Even when it should be obvious that a product is gluten free, it is reassuring to see it clearly labeled.

So, all this makes Lifeway Kefir a GFOH product!

Lifeway has a vibrant online presence. You can find them on Twitter @lifeway_kefir, on Facebook, on their blog, on Flikr, and on YouTube.

New GF Soup from Pacific Natural Foods

photo by mcp

Two new gluten free soups showed up at my local Whole Foods this week: Pacific Natural Foods Rosemary Potato Chowder and Chipotle Sweet Potato.

These soups fall into the "Hearty Carton" category from Pacific Natural. Not all of the soups in this category are gluten free. These two and the Thai Sweet Potato soup are gluten free. From their website, "Taking a page from bistro menus, our chefs combined vegetables, savory herbs and zesty spices to deliver sophisticated flavors that you'd only find in restaurants.  Packed in a shelf stable carton designed for chunky soups, you'll get a fresher soup, perfect for a convenient, tasty meal."

So far I have tried the Rosemary Potato. It was very tasty. I would definitely buy it again. A full list of gluten free products available from Pacific Natural Foods and be found here. Pacific Natural Foods can be found on Twitter @pacificfoods and on Facebook.

GF Gravy Coming (Back?) to Boston Market

According to a press release (PDF) from Boston Market,

"For guests with gluten sensitivities, Boston Market will also bring back poultry gravy formulated without products containing gluten to its restaurants by end of February 2011." (h/t Emily K. at Triumph Dining)
photo © 2008 thebittenword.com | more info (via: Wylio)

Well. That's interesting.

I wonder how/if they will make it known in the restaurants that the gravy has been switched over to the gluten-free recipe. I wonder if the general public will notice. Personally, I won't be comfortable until I have interrogated the manager. Even then, it requires a fair amount of trust to take the plunge into the gravy pool. Aw man, now I want a gravy pool, gluten free of course.

Drawing of the Day

created on an iPad

The Parking Lot Movie

The Parking Lot Movie (see also here) is a documentary that unpacks the quirks of the Corner Parking Lot in Virginia and its philosophizing owner and attendants. It is currently streaming on Netflix and can be purchased on demand from Amazon.

Hanging out is what they do.

The result of overeducated people working a service sector job: they view themselves as the detached priesthood of slacker cool who pass their time playing the invented game of flip cone. Many of the attendants are anthropology or sociology students. In the end, the movie is sort of a limited and narrow field study. One group of subjects is the attendants. Another group is the customers.

It's pretty amazing to watch the behavior of the customers, trying to talk their way out of paying for parking, insulting the attendants, and generally just being stupid.

In some way, the job is so simple and contained that the frustrations of any workplace are achieved in a beautiful and destructive efficiency.

James McMurtry @ The Montrose Room 1/14/11

For years Chicago has pined for James McMurtry to swing through the area and for years in seemed like a musical drought. But now in the last year he has been through town twice: first and Fitzgerald's with the full band and most recently on a solo campaign to The Montrose Room, The Old Town School of Folk, and Space. At the Montrose Room show, James was in great form. He opened with Down Across the Delaware, a great song that is part warning about the "grass is always greener" mentality and part modern lamentation. Always the self-deprecating joker, James asked for a little more vocal in the monitor. "Hey, make me sound like a rock star and not the hotel lounger singer that I am." (The Montrose Room is a hotel venue.)

James McMurtry/by mcp

You may be asking, "Who is James McMurtry?" Chances are, if you have not heard of him, there is no song that would ring a bell for you. And yet, he's neither has-been nor one-hit-wonder. He is simply an most honest, poignant, and unflinching songwriter who has flown under the mainstream radar (thankfully?) for his entire career. It's not too difficult to describe his music. It's almost always guitar-based saloon rock. (I'm surprised this isn't already the name of a genre.)

No target is too large or too small for his attention. If you're willing to acknowledge that America is shipping jobs overseas or that the gap between rich and poor is growing, then he's for you. If you feel your grey hair creeping in and remember a time you could walk off and leave your El Camino in the ditch to avoid police interference, then he's for you. If you're of a generation that has lost it's connection to the fields and is left dividing grandma's farmland, then he's for you. James frequently revisits these (and numerous other) themes that seem to be uniquely American.

If one were looking for the on-ramp to James McMurtry's music, the Live in Europe album would be a good start. His most recent album (Just Us Kids) is amazing as well.

A (New) Direction

This blog had been dedicated to the descriptions and photographs of a research trip to Syria. It has been over three years since then. If for some weird reason you are subscribed to this blog through as RSS reader, consider yourself warned. This is no longer a travelogue of my research trip. Of course it would be grand if you would stick around. But the blog is going to take a different direction. Who knows exactly what that direction will be?