I got the idea for this recipe from Karina’s Kitchen, at the glutenfreegoddess blogspot. It was just before Christmas and I was busy searching the web for a good cookie bar recipe that was much like our family favorite toffee bars. I stumbled across her Almost Sausalito Cookie Bar recipe. I had some of the ingredients on hand, and then just altered the recipe a small bit to make it like my mother’s toffee bar recipe that is of course, not gluten free. In the end our new gluten free family favorite was born. Around the house I call them toffee bars, but there isn’t any toffee in them so that name doesn’t seem to fit. …read the rest of this entry »
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Gluten-free Chocolate Coconut Squares
January 2nd, 2009 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Feingold Diet, Gluten & Maize (Corn)-Free, Recipes
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Jonathan Friesen publishes Jerk California, a gripping novel about a teen with Tourette Syndrome
December 4th, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Children, Education, Reviews, Tics and Tourettes
Jonathan Friesen
It has been a while since I have read a novel that has just stuck with me. Jonathan Friesen’s Jerk California with Penguin Group Publishers is such a novel. He masterfully created dynamic characters that I really cared about.
The story’s main character is a rural Minnesota boy named Sam Carrier, whom we meet in his senior year of high school. His tics have made him a social outcast by his peers and a source of pity by many adults. Surprisingly, his disability is not the focus of the story. Sam lives with an abusive step father and a mother that doesn’t know how to help him. Sam meets Naomi, a popular and very beautiful girl from a nearby school. He falls hard but only admires her from a distance until after graduation, when his whole world begins to change for the better.
Sam and Naomi are just teenage kids, but they are conflicted, intelligent, drawn toward each other even though they come from opposite ends of the social spectrum. Sam is poor, suffers from Tourette Syndrome, and unpopular at school. Naomi is wealthy, beautiful, and popular. Their paths keep crossing until one day fate takes them on a journey of self discovery together. …read the rest of this entry »
Eco-Friendly Polyface Farm Goes to Washington for ACORE’s Annual Renewable Energy Forum
December 2nd, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Eco Living, Events
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) is hosting the Renewable Energy in America National Policy Forum in Washington D.C. this week. After 25 years of federally funded research studies, the goal of their second phase is to help develop federal energy policies that will benefit our nation.
Since 2005 They have been discussing ways to put these technologies to work. One such way involves a small family farm that started nearly fifteen years before ACORE initially organized in 1975. The Salatin family bought a very worn out and abused farm near Staunton, Virginia in 1961. Over the years they researched and studied ecosystems and farming. What emerged from their efforts is Polyface, an eco-friendly sustainable farm that contributes to the local economy in Virginia.
Now their success is getting national exposure by ACORE, an organization that focuses on all kinds of eco-friendly energy sources and forms: solar, wind, hydropower, thermal, biomass, geothermal, and waste to energy. They promote bottom up development and ownership by farmers, ranchers, foresters who work the land rather than corporate and government systems and hand-outs. …read the rest of this entry »
Are GMO Crops Causing Widespread Fertility Problems?
November 26th, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in General, Nutrition
The first genetically modified corn crop was developed in 1996 and despite many controvercial discussions about its safety, until now there hasn’t been a long term study on the effects of including such foods into our diets. But thanks to the work of an Austrian group, a new study, “Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice” has been published. …read the rest of this entry »
Top 10 Celiac Survival Tips for the Holidays
November 24th, 2008 by Connie Bernard | Posted in Getting Started on a GF - CF diet, Gluten-free, Nutrition, Recipes
It’s often hard to get meals during the holiday due to our increased activities. We are doing extra shopping, decorating, and attending social activities. It’s also hard to attend so many social activities knowing that much of the special, yummy party food is off limits for a Celiac.
I’ve compiled a list of Holiday Survival tips for anyone newly diagnosed. My first Gluten free Holiday was very emotional for me and the holidays still can be sometimes. I wasn’t able to have all the special comfort foods I grew up with and it really hurt. I felt really deprived. No one around me understood how I felt, either. It never occurred to anyone around me that it would be hard for me to get through the holidays without the foods that they take for granted. Now I have my own set of coping preparations …read the rest of this entry »
Tribune Investigation finds Wellshire Farms Gluten-free products not Gluten-Free
November 21st, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Children, Children's Health, Reviews
In an exposé released today, staff writer for the Chicago Tribune, Sam Roe, reports that the Wellshire Kids Product line is tainted with unsafe amounts of gluten. The newspaper tested several products and found gluten in Gluten Free Chicken Corn Dogs, which tested at 116 ppm and 2,200 ppm, and Gluten Free Beef Corn Dogs which tested at 191 ppm and 1,200 ppm, and Gluten Free Chicken Bites which tested at 204 parts per million and 260 ppm. According to Roe,
“Wellshire Farms provided the Tribune with its own testing results, conducted in the spring. Their results showed that the chicken bites tested at 200 ppm, chicken corn dogs 150 ppm, and beef corn dogs 120 ppm.”
Non-dairy Chocolate Pudding (no corn, gluten, soy)
November 20th, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Gluten, Maize (Corn) & Casein-Free, Recipes
I’ve made this a few times now. It is pretty simple and sets up pretty fast so there is no need to make it the night before. I was originally trying to make a chocolate frosting using real melted chocolate chips and what resulted was a really tasty chocolate pudding. The kids loved it. Last week I used it as a filling in a double layered gluten-free chocolate cake I made using Cherrybrook Kitchen’s box mix.
A Candid Phone call with a Vaccine Manufacturer
November 18th, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Children, Children's Health, ReviewsAbove is a phone call that has been uploaded to You Tube and is circulating the internet through various email groups. The caller never identified himself other than by his user name, “greenourvaccines”. He also never revealed the vaccine manufacturer he interviewed. It would be hard to assume which manufacturer this is because at this time 80% of flu vaccines administered in America contain thimerosal, a form of mercury.
Family Farmed Expo in Chicago
November 6th, 2008 by Tomas Mackevicius | Posted in Eco Living, Events
Meet local farmers and artisan producers, learn why the best food is local food, shop the indoor farmers’ market, attend panel discussions and workshops designed to support the growth of local food production, processing and distribution. Do all of this and even more at the Family Farmed Expo in Chicago November 21-23, 2008 …read the rest of this entry »
Halloween Trick-or-Treaters need to Beware of Chocolate Coins
October 25th, 2008 by Caryn Talty | Posted in Children, Children's Health, General, Parenting
Sherwood brand Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins, sold across Canada by Costco, and also in various dollar and bulk stores, is imported from China and contains melamine, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. This is the same chemical responsible for killing numerous babies in China and sickening thousands more.
On October 8 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued its warning when the candy tested positive for melamine.
For more information, visit: Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Consumer Advisory.
