Gluten Free

Gluten Free Taste Test at Celiac Support Group meeting

2009-11-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last night I attended a Celiac Support Group Meeting, just thought I would drop in with some of our new Astoria Mills GFCF pizza mix for people to try, along with a few mini tea sandwiches. I don’t like to attend a meeting and not bring a few goodies at least!

Little did I know that Catherine of Frugal Freebies would also be attending for the first time. She did not say anything at the meeting to me, but surprised me this morning with an email saying she had written about me in her blog! What a great article and I’m so glad Catherine tasted and liked!

I brought a GFCF Asparagus & Basil pizza made using the new, Astoria Mills Italian Breads & Pizza Mix #5 as well as miniature broccoli and cream cheese sandwiches on one of Trina's on my Victorian Tea Bread, a light fluffy sandwich bread made using Astoria Mills Fine Flour Mix #3.

Thank goodness I brought the pizza, minus cheese, as one lady there cannot have any dairy.

People there had lots of questions and I was glad to answer them. They love that the mixes are good everyday foods, with only a little sugar in the breads to feed the yeast, no sugar in the others and less salt.

They were also thrilled to hear about the enrichment formula included in the mixes as so many are having a hard time assimilating and getting enough of the nutrients they need in their diets.

Kyle Paterson of Astoria Mills also attended with me and talked about how easy it is to use the mixes. Not being an experienced cook himself he wondered about having a system of mixes at first, but after seeing the cookbook, just loves the idea that people can make all their favorites with only a few mixes. Three enriched flour mixes and two enriched bread and pizza mixes. He also liked that I included support recipes, like the sandwich fillings, not just the bread recipes.

Everyone loved the pizza and the sandwiches. The recipes are in my latest book which Astoria Mills is including free with the purchase of mixes.

Catherine of Frugal Freebies and Born to Love tells about the event so well, go have a look at Catherine's Frugal Freebies Blog and read what she says.

Thank you Catherine!

Gluten Free Turkey Stuffing Recipe

2009-11-07T05:49:00.000-08:00

Granddad’s Turkey Stuffing – The Real Deal …just made gluten free

Step 1. Make a dozen buns using 1 700 gram package of Astoria Mills Italian Bread & Pizza Mix #5. An easy mix recipe with added nutrition. Great buns or pizza. Enjoy some of the fresh rolls then save about 6 or 7 rolls – they can be 2 to 4 days old. Tear the rolls apart or cut up in small pieces.

2. Clean about a dozen mushrooms, slice and sauté in a little butter for about 10 minutes until browned. Add 1 Gluten Free sausage chopped with casing removed. Sauté a little longer. If no GF sausage is available, use a little ground beef or pork. You can also omit the meat here if you prefer.

3. Mix the following together with the above:
2 chopped onions
2 peeled and chopped apples
2 stalks celery, chopped
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
a little chopped fresh sage, or 1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon thyme
3 raw eggs beaten slightly
1 tablespoon GF Soy Sauce ( Optional)
Cooked giblets from the turkey (optional)
Mix together and place in turkey, sew up with butcher’s thread or use turkey pins.

2009-11-05T16:36:00.001-08:00

Well here it is! I know you have all been waiting for our big announcement. We finally did it! happy to announce that the New Astoria Mills Enriched Gluten Free Mixes are now available for sale. There have been so many details to get worked out.

Hope you will enjoy browsing throught the website at www.astoriamills.ca and seeing more new photographs taken at my kitchen window just before anyone was allowed to taste, J . Lots of fun and I hope to do some video demos in the next few weeks to show how the mixes work.

Someone asked me if you could make Monkey Bread with any of our gluten free mixes and I said of course! In fact with only a few basic mixes you can make all the foods you love again, and because the mixes are enriched, even a piece of pie is more nutritious!

Here is the recipe for Monkey Bread

Pull Apart Monkey Bread – Made Gluten Free

1. Wet Ingredients: Beat in bowl of an electric mixer or by hand,

3eggs (or substitute)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Add 1 ½ cups lukewarm milk –(about 75 degrees)

2. Dry Ingredients: Blend the following together in a separate bowl

4 cups – or entire 700g pkg. Italian Breads & Pizza Mix #5

1/3 cup sugar

Now quickly mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients together by hand. Or if you have a powerful dough hook, that will work too.

Mix about 2 minutes until well blended. Let dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.

3. Knead dough using a little Astoria Mills Pastry Flour Mix #2

adding enough to be able to shape the dough into 1 1/2" to 2" diameter balls. Let balls rise for about 15 minutes ( if dough was refrigerated, bring to room temperature)

4. Melt 1/2 cup butter and allow to cool slightly, add

1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

5. Dip the dough balls into the slightly cooled, melted butter, placing each ball of dough into a buttered Bundt pan, tube, or monkey bread pan forming layers of little dough balls until ¾ of the pan is full.

6. Let the dough rise for another 15 to 20 minutes and bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven for 45-60 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, run a blunt knife along edges of bread to free it from the pan. Remove, upside-down, from pan onto platter.

Let bread cool for a least a half hour, the bread may be served either sliced or pulled apart.

All the best,

Trina

Gluten Free Pumkin PIe

2009-01-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

Just looking at some of the photographs I took at holiday meals. This gluten free pumpkin pie was really delicious. I even made the pumpkin filling by baking a fresh pumpkin and hollowing it out rather than using a tin. There is a taste difference when you have time and pumpkins are in season.

Hope to have some new goodies to share as 2009 progresses. Lots of new ideas up my sleeve, can't wait to do some more testing.

Did you see the TV interview and taste test? Go to my website at http://www.astoriamills.ca and have a look or find me on YouTube. It was a lot of fun! So glad everyone is loving my new gluten free cookbooks. Thank everyone of you who wrote me, yes, I'll keep writing!

Hugs and Happy New Year!

Trina

New Blog Address

2009-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

To make it easier to answer questions and keep up to date with everything and still have a life, I have created a Blog alongside my Gluten Free Trina website, here is the link,

http://www.astoriamils.ca/blog

You can read my more recent posts here. Always glad when people write.

Hope you had a great gluten free holiday and New Years!

Wellsphere

2008-11-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of the new Wellsphere on the web? It is a place that has many interesting links to blogs and other articles about Healthy Living, answers to health questions etc. Have a look at
http://www.wellsphere.com

Fashion, Gluten Free Carrot Cake & Fun

2008-10-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night Whitby History Museum sponsored a Fashion Food & Fun night as a fundraiser. I baked my gluten free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting so that attendees who are gluten intolerant could eat without worry.

The event was a lot of fun, and along with Jane, of New Vision Nutrition, I was able to give a short talk about the gluten free diet.

Even though I thought my cake turned out a bit dry this time. Making a huge batch to feed a hundred is different than just making a regular sized cake. However, it was a hit and wheat eaters and all ate and enjoyed. I got a call the next day from a friend who took some home to her husband and he said it was the best carrot cake he had eaten, wheat or no.

The family is getting together this weekend, so I’m thinking a chocolate cake would be in order. I’ll try and get a photo of it before it is gone and post it for you.

New Books done and a Taste Test

2008-10-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Finally after hundreds of hours of research, testing recipes and photographing I have finished my next two gluten free cookbooks: Health & Nutrition - A Gluten Free Trina E-book. and a small sampler book called ‘A Sampler’.

I have also managed to get my new website www.glutenfreetrina.com/ posted with all the new information about my books.

Recently I was invited to do a taste testing at an event where about 200 women attended a conference. My friend Jane Snyder of New Vision Nutrition was going to be there. Jane helps people find out how their diets can impact their health issues and advises dietary changes. Since she has been finding many people have absorption issues which are often caused by gluten, she has advised people to try a gluten free diet. In many cases this has helped.

The problem is a dietary change of this scope means people have to learn how to live a gluten free lifestyle. Often, they go through a few weeks of the diet, feel better and then despair what to do to not feel deprived of foods they love.

Because food is not only a necessity of life it is a big part of our enjoyment of life it becomes hard to totally deny yourself of many comfort foods you have enjoyed in the past, and those delicious looking delicacies that are around everywhere, just to taunt you!

I understand this as, the only way I could convince myself not to cheat, was to tell myself to go home and make it myself, only, make it gluten free.

This is why most diets fail altogether, we need to be able to enjoy or food!

Well, I’m getting a bit long winded here, but anyway, I went to the conference along with several of my freshly baked Famer’s loaves of gluten free bread. It was different from Celiac events I had been to before where everyone there just loved my bread, saying “It was the best they had ever eaten!” I know these people are used to a gluten free diet. They probably haven’t tasted wheat bread for a long time.

Well, the beautiful fragrance of freshly baked Farmer's Style bread wafted through the halls of the conference center and pretty soon I found a line up of people who wanted to try my bread. So there I was handing out nice little slices of freshly buttered bread.

Well, they loved it! I can tell you I was not amazed exactly, I know my bread tastes good and is filled with only good healthy ingredients, but it sure did make me feel good, that these were people who normally eat wheat based breads also loved my gluten free bread.

I didn’t think I would meet anyone there who actually was on a gluten free diet, but I did. Not only that, I started asking, “Do you know anyone who has to be on a Gluen free Diet, could you tell them about my cookbooks?”

Well it seems almost everyone knows someone! In fact a woman standing at the table beside me said her husband was on a gluten free diet, and he would be thrilled to learn about my cookbooks as he used to bake pies and misses them. She said she never usually tries anything gluten free because it just does not taste good to her, but my bread ‘looked’ so good she gave it a try and loved it!

I’m happy to say, sales are going quite well of my new books. Check out my website, www.glutenfreetrina.com/

At the end of the month, I’ve been invited to do another taste testing and bring my gluten free carrot cake this time. It is going to be in Whitby, Ontario October 24th 2008. At the Centennial Building, 416 Center St. South, Whitby, from 7 to 10 pm. Tickets $10.00 each. It is a fundraiser for the Whitby History Museum & Children’s Centre.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

PS. The recipe for the Farmer's Style Brown loaf is in my book, Health & Nutrition.

Still working on my new book

2008-08-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is almost fall and I am still working on my next book, a lot of work! I’m finding it really rewarding though, as I experiment with new recipes and they work!!!!! Then photographing them is fun too ...

This next book is turning out to be an encyclopedia of sorts. All the foods we can eat in a gluten free diet. There are lots of them! People often ask me if a gluten free diet is healthy? And so I am making this book answer questions on nutritious ideas I have implemented in feeding my family a gluten free diet.

Everywhere you find lists of foods you can’t have, but having a list of foods you can have, how nutritious they are, how to prepare them and also give you ideas to include enough variety will be very helpful I’m sure. I’ve also made a list of things you find on labels, both gluten free and not, that will help you decide if something is right for your dietary needs.
A gluten free ingredients list has a great many new terms as even I have found out! I’m hoping to give people a resource guide …all in one place!

Basically, yes, it is healthy, if you know how to manage it properly and with lots of variety. So I started doing research in January about all the foods we can eat, and how nutritious they are, (or not) and there are tons of choices. It has turned out to be hundreds of hours of research and writing though, and now I’m doing the layup part and have over a hundred pages so far. I'm thinking I may have to write a book series to get everything in. I so want to share all of the things I have been doing and make it easier for others. It is hard enough having to change your whole lifestyle, food wise, to have everything laid out for you as far as recipes and anecdotal information of what it has been like for us, I’m sure would help.

I think a lot of people will love my new book series, just because it is the latest up to date information on how to have a healthy gluten free diet with recipes that also help you with other dietary restrictions as well. A valuable resource to help save time, money and keep healthy. Well, better get back at it!

Gluten Free Victorian Tea

2008-06-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a busy time this winter testing new gluten free recipes for another book. In the middle of all that I’ve been answering people’s emails, lots of good feed back and ideas to help me make things even more clear.

This week I’m putting on a Gluten Free Victorian Tea at the Whitby History Museum. From 1:00 to 3:00pm -123 Brock Street South, Whitby, Ontario. www.whitbyhistoricalsociety.com

They hold regular teas once a month; unfortunately they are of course off limits to those of us on a Gluten Free Diet. Sooo, I was asked to provide the goodies for a Gluten Free version tea on June 19th. Should be fun, mouthwatering and give guests a chance to try some of my new Gluten Free Parisian Sourdough Bread. Hope to have a sell out crowd, good fundraising for the museum.

Yesterday I made little tart shells, while also making a rhubarb pie for Father’s Day, and they are sitting in the freezer ready to be filled. I can’t decide whether to make strawberry tarts or chocolate? Maybe both!

Happy New Year - Fish & Chips

2008-01-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Of course we had a wonderful gluten free Christmas Dinner complete with turkey for Christmas Dinner. The holiday dinner my family loved most though, just because we hadn’t had anything like this for years was my new gf recipe for Classic English Fish & Chips. My husband said this was one of his favourites, way back when. He had given up ever having it again. Of course I have tried, but it never quite made muster till now.

The fish was wonderful and the batter didn’t fall off. The fries were so delicious, I think it was due to the wonderful farm fresh potatoes I had bought locally at B C Pickering Produce. The woman at the cash register said they were very particular about their produce and everything was so fresh.

Classic English Fish and Chips
A Gluten Free Adaptation by Trina Astor-Stewart

Fish & Chips is classic English street food and many would not go a week even today without heading down to their favourite locale. The first shop opened in London in the mid 19th century. By the 1930s, shops were located in towns all over England.

If you want to be authentic and have a fish fry night. Place newspaper placemats on the table, a basket on top, lined with parchment paper, pile in the fries and fish and serve with apple cider vinegar, tartar sauce, ketchup and a nice gf ale on the side. Serves four.

Wash and peel and cut into strips, about
4 large potatoes (if new potatoes leave the skins on)
Pat dry with paper towel.
Heat sunflower oil in a wok, or deep fryer (depth should be 2 or 3 inches to cover) to 375 degrees or until just about sizzling heat.
Fry potatoes about 7 minutes or until golden brown and remove from hot oil with a slotted spoon, (or basket in deep fryer) Place potatoes on a baking sheet lightly salt the chips and reserve warm in a 250 F oven.

Fish

About 1 lb fish, cut into chunks. Each piece of fish should be about 2 inches by about 3 inches. Traditionally Cod or Sole are the fish most commonly used to make fish and chips, any firm, white-fleshed fish will work.

Prepare fresh or thawed Fish by draining thoroughly. Pat fish dry. Sprinkle fish on both sides with salt and pepper.
Place about ½ cup of ‘Astoria Mills All Purpose Mix #1’ in a bowl, mix in ½ teaspoon Herbs Provencal ( optional) and dredge each piece of fish in the flour mixture until well coated, shaking off excess.

Prepare Batter:

Blend together dry ingredients
¾ cup Astoria Mills All Purpose Mix #1
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
In a separate bowl, whisk together,
2 tablespoons vinegar

1 egg
1 cup water or Gluten Free Beer ( I used water)
Mix dry ingredients and wet together with a whisk to make a smooth, thick batter.

Dip one piece of fish at a time in the batter, and then slide into the hot oil. Repeat with 4 or 5 pieces and fry turning each piece of fish over frequently, until deep golden and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Then fry remaining fish in batches of 4, returning oil to 375°F between batches.

Serve in a basket lined with parchment paper

(if you like, my crew couldn't wait, so just plunkt it on a plate,)

and have GF vinegar available for each person to use over fish or you can also serve with lemon wedges.

Serve with Homemade Coleslaw and Tartar Sauce, and GF Ketchup on the side.

Here is a photograph of the inside of a piece of the gf battered fish. And yes, the family is used to the drill, gotta take a picture of it!

Happy New Year, have a great 2008 everyone.
Try my new Fish & Chips Recipe I think it qualifies as a guilty pleasure for sure, since I’m supposed to be trying to lose weight. Let me know what you think, glad to hear from you.
email: trina@astoriamagazine.com

Blue Cheese, Gluten Free?

2008-01-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Blue Cheese ….Gluten Free?

Blue cheese is generally made from cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses and have Penicillin type cultures added so that the final product is spotted or veined with blue or blue-green mould. Traditionally it was started on wheat bread, and so not gluten free. However, many lists now state that most blue cheeses are now started with an artificial or synthetic culture. So best to read the label for contents such as wheat or gluten.

Last year Gluten Free Living magazine had a great article on blue cheese. As I recall from the article, most blue cheeses are safe. However, some people are sensitive to moulds, and then that is another story. Brown rice can’t be tolerated by some, because it tends to grow mould before being polished. Then some people are allergic to Penicillin also, so you are the best decision maker for your own dietary needs.

Just wanted to write about this as my Gluten Free Goodies –Christmas Edition book has a couple of recipes, out of the over 150 in there that call for a bit of blue cheese in the salad dressing and such. If you want to you can always substitute for something else. We like blue cheese every now and then and so included this in the e-book.

Apparently, ‘Wishbone’ blue cheese salad dressing is gluten-free. For all of you out there looking to hit up some home made buffalo wings and blue cheese for an impromptu holiday treat, there's a great source. A guilty pleasure for sure. We deserve out little gluten free guilty pleasures don't we!

There's absolutely no comparison to home made blue cheese dressing on a salad, Central Market in Dallas, Texas makes a wonderful Blue Cheese dressing, that is wonderful!

A gluten-free diet brings about all kinds of changes. Many people who have emailed me are actually adopting a gluten free lifestyle simply for the health benefits. Yes, we're forced read every label, make a lot from scratch, but before we know it, we're trying new things. Sometimes I think our family has been saved from the junk food life style, so much of it has wheat and gluten in it that it is off limits. Life goes on, and more happily when we're feeling good.

Last minute baking

2007-12-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a busy week baking goodies and getting ready for Christmas. Lots of good comments and sales of my new book. I’m really thrilled with the response. It is not easy to get the word out and I did so want to give as many people living a gluten free lifestyle some new choices this holiday season. Also created a new website which I will add to as the time goes by, you can see it at http://www.glutenfreetrina.com/

Also been leaning more and experimenting with new ideas. I even created a new cookie called Glazed Tangerine Chews, Gluten Free, with no corn, no casein, no sugar, no nuts, no eggs! WOW, a tall order but they are tasty. If you have a favourite food, and you would like to have a gluten free version ....just email me and I will see how I can help you.

Wishing all of you Happy Holidays!

Great Reviews for Gluten Free Goodies

2007-12-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

It’s great, I’m getting wonderful comments about my book. It is solving a dilemma for some mom’s of Celiac kids.

One mom wrote me, “ You know, a few months ago we baked something and my celiac daughter, ___ noticed the smell. She had never noticed before. She asked about it and was so upset when told it wasn't gluten-free. It broke my heart. Ever since then, it's a rule around here that we have to bake only gluten-free. (My other daughter likes to bake too.) I wasn't sure how to handle the holiday baking - you have really come to our rescue! I'll try to send pictures of the baking results.”

Thank you J. for sharing your comments. I put a picture in to show you some I made awhile ago. Cutting out cookies at Christmas is still one of my fondest memories with grandma Burdie, in NC. The Sugar Cookie recipe was inspired by what she called, Vanilla Wafers or Tea Cakes.

The Braided Artisan Bread recipe I developed out of a necessity when we planned to take the boys camping and I needed something easy to take with me, that I would still be able to make fresh after two weeks in the woods.

I make it all the time at home now, because it is make ahead easy. I also like playing with and kneading the dough, sort of therapeutic. I mix it dry ahead, store and then just add the eggs and water to activate. I could probably use egg substitute if I needed to.

One day I quickly activated a batch between photo shoots. I usually let it rise 2 hours before baking, so when I got an unexpected call that I had to go back to the shoot early, I wondered what I was going to do to save it. The dough starts to taste too yeasty to me, if it rises longer than that, at room temperature, so -I just stuck it in the fridge and it was still great next morning. I just lifted it out of the fridge, kneaded a little more of my rice flour mix into it, shaped it and popped it into the oven, cold, turned it on to 350F and 40 minutes later, that divine smell of freshly baked bread!

Lots of times now I bake it the night before and make the sandwiches to take along the next morning. A couple of mornings ago, my son surprised us with the best French toast, made from some slices of the Braided Artisan Bread I’d baked the day before.

New: November 2009 -You can now buy this bread mix and others at www.AstoriaMills.com

More Baking

2007-12-08T05:03:00.000-08:00

As an aside, I baked 400 little Sugar Cookie Hearts and took them to an event recently. It was not a celiac event, but since I don’t make anything but gf free, well. Anyway, they were a big hit, with people coming back for seconds. I wish I had some of the comments on film.

I had each little cookie wrapped with a label on the side saying these are Gluten Free. It was really great. One woman came up to me and said she had eaten hers, I said, "Would you like another one?" She said "Oh yes, they are good!"

There were quite a few cookies left over, and I had them stored at home. My son kept getting into them and they were still good two weeks later!

Trina

Gluten Free Goodies ! Holiday Recipes for Ceilacs

2007-12-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

Gluten Free Goodies - Christmas Edition -2007

Just in time for Christmas Baking and Holiday Menu Planning!

Specially developed in my home kitchen over 15 years of cooking and baking a Gluten Free diet for my family.

Imagine being able to roll out and bake Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, Chocolate Pinwheel cookies and decorate them with your Celiac children this Christmas! No more need for your children or grandchildren to feel deprived of the wonderful pleasures of Holiday Baking.

Make sure your children have wonderful memories this Christmas!

Delicious Recipes tested on family and friends, this long awaited book contains my Original, and Traditional recipes made Gluten Free. I have had the most exacting critics taste testing my recipes, ...as my son told me, "If it doesn't taste good, I won't eat it!"

My recipe for Gluten Free Gingerbread will allow you to make wonderful gingerbread houses for your Celiac Children. Give the gift of wonder and traditional home baking, GF healthy and delicious!

Read more information in Astoria Magazine about my book, Gluten Free Goodies, Christmas Edition

Recipes are in an easy, step by step, time saving, format. You will enjoy the close up color photographs in the book.

There are over 150 recipes in the book, everything you need for the holidays, from cookies, pies, cakes & tortes, special tips, and menus. All in a fun easy to read and follow, down load it right away in a PDF format.

A high quality ebook, all the recipes are linked in the Table of Contents so that you can easily find any recipe you are looking for quickly and easily.

My family's treasured Gluten Free Holiday recipes, can now be yours!

Purhase the book now -an instant Download, -on our Secure Shopping Cart only $24.95

Download a Free Sample including, Recipes, Photographs, Table of Contents, & Index of recipes

This book will be your treasure for years to come.

My Recipes for Braided Artisan Bread, Gingerbread Cookies and Sugar Cookies are worth the price of the book alone. Print out a page or more at a time. Or simply store on your computer for easy reference any time.

If you know someone who is Celiac, intollerant of wheat and gluten, please tell them about this book.

They will really thank you!

Happy GF Baking!

Trina