It’s gluten free ratio rally time again! If you aren’t familiar with the event, the gluten free ratio rally is a blogging event where several intrepid gluten free bloggers tackle a new baked good each month by using the ratio method of baking. Adina of Gluten Free Travelette is our host, and I think bundt cake was a perfect choice for ratio baking. Cakes don’t need gluten to work and so I think they are extremely well suited to direct substitutions by weight in order to convert to GF. And just what type of cake is a bundt cake anyways? The best information I could find is that bundt cake is merely pound cake (or any other dense cake) baked in a bundt pan, and so I went with a pound cake ratio as my base recipe. But really, I think any type of cake baked in a round pan like that could be called a bundt cake.
This post doesn’t have a recipe. It doesn’t have food, and it’s not about being gluten free. Instead it’s about community. As many of you know, last week, a crazy frankenstorm named Sandy hit the East Coast of the U.S. leaving millions without power, thousands evacuated from/lost their homes, several lost their lives, and it wreaked chaos and havoc across the northeastern seaboard, and affected people as far west as the Appalachians. What has occurred has been horrific for me to watch, but I’m sure nothing compared to what it was like for those who were in the wake of Sandy’s fury. There are so many of my friends still sitting in the dark and the cold, and many many more whom I don’t know who were touched by this storm.
So rather than make another post about our idyllic Autumn here en Suisse, far removed from everything, I had a conversation with my good friend Barb of Creative Culinary about what we could do. Food brings people together in good times and bad, and food can bring us together this time, to help those in need. We decided to create this event to bring the food blogging community together, so that we can join hands, and meals, and support for the victims of Sandy.
How can you help??
Thursday, November 8, 2012
– Create a post on your own blog sharing a comfort dish – something that you would make for someone in need, to help them feel at home. But more importantly, lets encourage everyone to donate to relief efforts. Feel free to grab the code for the badge below which links to the Red Cross disaster relief, and come back on Nov. 8th link up your post.
Don’t have a blog??
Please donate to help those in need. Who to donate to? Several organizations are dedicating themselves to helping the victims of hurricane Sandy. Some of the larger ones include:
Red Cross is providing food, shelter, and other forms of support to hurricane victims. You can donate directly to the Red Cross, you can also text the word “Redcross” to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
Salvation Army is also focused on providing food, shelter, and support to victims, and takes donations to storm relief.
Feeding America is providing food, water and supplies to those who need it as part of their disaster relief program.
For gluten free disaster victims, I’m afraid I’m not sure the best resources for hunger relief. However, others have provided links and suggestions in the comments to this post, so please check those out for ways to help. And if you have information, please feel free to add it in the comments below.
Follow hashtag #FBS4Sandy
to see everyone’s posts and encourage donations.
Grab the code below to add this badge to your post, which links to the Red Cross website to encourage donations. We’ll keep this up throughout November so feel free to join in even if you can’t participate on Nov. 8:
The end of another month is nigh, and that means it’s time for my favorite roundup series – naturally gluten free links! The blogosphere was filled with a plethora of gorgeous and unique naturally gluten free dishes this month, it was quite hard to narrow down my list to those I choose to present to today. If you are unfamiliar with my series, each month I collect great looking naturally gluten free recipes that I find on various food blogs, and compile them for you. By naturally gluten free, I mean no weird exotic ingredients or substitutions are necessary to make these dishes gluten free, because they already are! The bloggers on this list may not have gluten free blogs, but these particular recipes are GF, and require zero modifications to be enjoyed by someone on a GF diet.
This month, Fall is officially in full swing and that shows through the lovely selection of recipes this month. There are some classic Autumn flavors this month – chestnuts, pumpkins, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, apples and even a couple caramel recipes. And then we also have some great comfort foods – baked eggs, potatoes, hearty beef dishes and more. So I hope you enjoy this month’s selection, I know there are now several recipes on my “to make” list!
This week Autumn arrived, finally! Cool breezes, chilly drizzle and low-lying flat clouds that obscure the mountains from view. And now I’ve done it again. For having so much to say, why is it that I always start out talking about the weather? You would think I would have something a little less mundane to chat about. But I see it as this – when I write, I am having a conversation with you (albeit a bit one sided until the comments) – and honestly, I guess I just think about the weather a lot – the weather drives my mood, what activities we do, and yes, even what food I cook. So as banal as it is, yay Fall! yay cool weather! yay drizzly rain! (ok, maybe not for that last one).
This cold blustery weekend was also our 4th wedding anniversary – weren’t we cute back then??
Given that long candlelit dinners are likely not in our set of dinner possibilities for awhile, we opted to cook at home to celebrate. I’m not really that sort of romantic sap anyways, and cooking is part of the fun of eating a nice meal. We went to the market and got one of the really nice poulet to roast in the oven, and once a cranky overtired baby was finally happily asleep in bed, we stood over the stove, eating our anniversary chicken in all its glory right out of the roasting pan while staring at the monitor hoping she was really asleep for the night. She’d had a long day, made some large intellectual and physical strides all at once, and unfortunately we had missed the very narrow time window of putting a happy baby to bed (it’s still a bit of a guessing game). But it was our first anniversary as new parents, the chicken was melt in your mouth moist, and we are one happy new family.
Our family is no stranger to food restrictions. My husband’s father has several food allergies, so does his sister, his cousins have food allergies, and members of my family have food restrictions as well, even though they aren’t allergy derived. We have family members who can’t eat sugar, some who can’t eat dairy, can’t have tomatoes, can’t eat gluten, can’t eat garlic, the list goes on. When we all get together it is going to be one well organized Thanksgiving to keep everything straight and safe for everyone to fit their various food restrictions, and I have no doubt that it will all taste awesome.
Though now it seems I can add myself into the mix as well. You see, I’ve gotten rather used to the idea of giving up dairy these past couple months. It turns out baby girl is not a happy camper when I eat dairy, so since the beginning of the Summer I’ve said goodbye to cheese, butter, cream, milk, and yogurt. It’s funny, Ryan and I always used to say to each other, “At least it’s just gluten and not dairy, that would be impossible!” And now here I am, dairy free – and you know what? It’s actually not been that huge of a deal. I find it almost a bit sad how little I have missed dairy actually – I mean after all I do live in the land of yogurt, croissants au beurre, double crème, fondue, and raclette. But I’ve surprisingly been anything but nostalgic and sentimental for giving up of my favorite food groups.
Maybe it’s because our family already has experience dealing with one food issue and we are accustomed to handling various dietary restrictions that adding in another doesn’t add that much extra stress – we already cook most everything from scratch and hardly ever eat out (thanks to the expensive prices here in Switzerland and a young baby, eating out is a very very rare event). We full well know that the simpler “free of” meals are often the most satisfying and easiest to make on a regular basis, so I haven’t really looked into using dairy substitutes yet. I’m just eating naturally dairy free dishes (though I may have to use some rice milk and break down and make pancakes sometime !). Or maybe it’s that I know that this is surely a temporary thing (either until she outgrows it or me) and I can draw strength in knowing how resolved Ryan is about his avoidance of gluten, which is a lifetime commitment for him. Or maybe it’s not a big deal for me because I know it’s for baby girl, and I want to do everything I can to make her happy. Whatever the reason, I’ve mainly viewed it as just an extra challenge on dinner, and as motivation to look for new things to make.
**Note to all my gluten free readers – this post contains a roundup of links that are not necessarily gluten free – I will continue posting more GF recipes soon, just taking a post to share and admire a bunch of great Americana posts for my lovely friend Meeta’s Monthly Mingle series
Well September has come and gone (rather quickly I might add!), and with that have been several gorgeousAmericana recipes to celebrate for Meeta’s lovely Monthly Mingle event! I had a great time hosting this month and seeing what great American creations everyone came up with – shall we take a tour??
!). Or maybe it’s that I know that this is surely a temporary thing (either until she outgrows it or me) and I can draw strength in knowing how resolved Ryan is about his avoidance of gluten, which is a lifetime commitment for him. Or maybe it’s not a big deal for me because I know it’s for baby girl, and I want to do everything I can to make her happy. Whatever the reason, I’ve mainly viewed it as just an extra challenge on dinner, and as motivation to look for new things to make.
