Thursday, 29 December 2011
Is what we are eating causing massive health problems?
I love to cook! All types of cooking, I even made baked goods for family and friends this Christmas! Theres something special about the joy of someone else getting pleasure and enjoyment of food you have baked! I even adapted my great grandmothers 100+ year old recipe to make a gf Christmas Pudding!
The more I cook and enjoy it every day, the more im aware of the additives etc that are in store brought cakes, biscuits etc! If you make a cake or biscuits at home they only last for a few days, in a sealed container, maybe 5, but they won't last for months like the supermarket brands!
I look at the rates of cancer, which are currently 1 in 2 people will end up with cancer and I have to wonder why? This is a matter very close to my heart, I've lost 2 grandparents from this horrible disease and have many family memembers who have fought this disease!
Our parents and grandparents, particularly farming families like mine, were almost self sufficient! Take a step back 100 years and you made your own bread, cakes and slices, were all handmade, dinner was often rabbit (a meat killed by the men of the house, or women in some circumstances), nothing was spared, leftovers were used and re used and generally people were healthier! There was no flavour enhancers, little numbers on the back of products, it was only small stores in the city, no such thing as big supermarkets! In the city and country, there was a bread man, a milk man and a traveling salesman to buy things from!
What troubles me, is there were significantly less rates of cancer and other diseases! You have to wonder if all these additives, and mysterious numbers in foods are affecting our health dramatically!
I know that certain companies sell carcenogenic chemicals to large fast food operators, to go in there food! And it doesn't stop there,some wine companies use such chemicals to clean out their wine vats! All this ends up in our stomachs, processed through our bodies!
To me, it has to have some impact on our health, the cancer and disease rates! I even had a gf pudding brought for me, it tasted nice, then I looked at the additives and numbers on the back and I was slightly concerned!
Although even 100 years ago, coeliac disease would have existed, but it would have had a different name!
I'm glad that we live in an era where diseases like coeliac are recognized and treatable! But I think I'd much rather cook the majority of my food, to remove all the additives and nasty unknown products, then buy pre made food!
What's your thoughts on this? Do you agree with me or have another theory? I'd love to hear your comments!
Don't forget to follow me by clicking on the follow me tag or follow by email, I'm also on Twitter @MMOAGF and Facebook on the page Mishaps and Mayhem Of A Gluten Freee Life, just click the like button.
I await your comments!
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Old Fashioned GF Christmas Pudding!
Once again I'm participating in a blog hop, this one is focused on festive favourites and is hosted by 84th and 3rd! I'm very excited to pass my contributions to this blog hop for the second time! My festive recipe is something that has been passed down from generation to generation in my family. My mother even has to make the famous puddings in the same bowl her mother and grandmother used, it's over 100 years old and fine china! It's like one of the bowls that people used to wash in, my grandfather who if he was alive would be nearly 92, and he as a baby was bathed in it! It's truly amazing!
I refuse to carry it and am so scared when I help mum with my sister make the pudding, to stir the pudding on the off chance that I might crack or break this precious bowl! But mum insists that that is the bowl that we have to make the pudding in, for the rest of the year it's stored carefully away, wrapped in a towel, to ensure it doesn't get broken!
Last year, my first Christmas as a coeliac I didn't have the pudding. This year, I modified my great grandmothers recipe (she was the first generation to read and write), so it's highly likely that this recipe is much older and was passed down verbally, like we are doing now, with mother and daughters helping make the pudding and learning the special little tricks! That's why this recipe is so precious! It's a piece of my family history. So I didn't want to cook a pudding from any other recipe, I adapted this wonderful original recipe to be gluten free, so I could eat it! It was just a blending of flours and almond meal and I achieved the perfect balance! But the tricky part of the pudding is not the making, even though my mum made us do everything how her mum did! We made breadcrumbs from stale bread with our fingers, no blenders or mix masters, everything had to be done how it was done 100 years ago!
The hardest part of these puddings is boiling it constantly for 4-6 hours, constantly topping it up with boiling water, it must not come off the boil! Mum has cooked it on the barbeque, but there was problems with the wind, if you are cooking inside just be careful not to burn your stove top! I think grandma had the best idea, cooking in the garage on a camping stove!
It's not an easy recipe but is so moist, delicious and a real Aussie classic. My grandma and my great grandmother, used to put thruppences in the pudding, she did it when I was a child still! It originated from when people didn't have much money, so instead of spending copious amounts of money on gifts, like we do now, Christmas in my grandparents and great grandparents generations was more about spending time with family, having a delicious dinner and finally being able to eat this marvelous pudding that had been hanging in muslin cloth for weeks, the thruppences was the former currency in Australia, and getting these in your slice of pudding was your little present! Fortunately I still have thruppences but I didn't and wont be putting them in my pudding!
So from generations of my family I pass on to you a slightly modified gluten free version of this precious pudding! It's best to cook this about a month before Christmas, to let the flavors blended in, you can also freeze this marvelous pudding!
Traditional GF Christmas Pudding:
Ingredients:
250g butter (leave out at room temperature)
250g sugar 4 eggs (room temperature)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup gf plain flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/2 cup dry stale gf breadcrumbs (leave out, tear into tiny pieces and remove crusts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup currants
60g mixed peel
60g dates
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbote soda
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
1/4 cup OP or normal rum
3/4 teaspoon mixed spice (or if no mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger)
1/4 teaspoon ginger
30cm calico cloth
Method:
Chop and soak fruit, essence, and rum for a min overnight (better for a few days). Sift flours and dry ingredients, add sugar, rub in butter (best with cold hands), until mixed through. Beat eggs well, until they are light and creamy and 3/4 of way up the bowl, mix in gradually to dry ingredients. Add fruit grudully, stirring well. Rub gf flour into cloth to cover about 8cm from sides, with more flour in the centre. Place cloth in a colander or bowl. Place mixture in centre of cloth, gather ends together and tie securely with string as close to mixture as possible, leaving a small break (1-2cm), to allow pudding to swell. Tie cloth and put in boiling water for 3-4 hours. Continue to add boiling water every 30 minutes, don't allow to boil dry. Puddings are best made a month or so before Xmas and can freeze. Wrap in glad wrap and finish off with a layer of foil. These puddings can store for months in the freezer and taste great 6 months later! Serve with ice cream and brandy custard, and you get to eat pudding just like everyone else! Im storing half in the freezer and half for Christmas day, the frozen half has actually shrunk, don't stress, thats what it is meant to do.
Enjoy from my family a precious recipe to yours! I did notice when eating last night it was slightly crumbly, it tastes perfect tho! I'll play around with the flour combo next year and keep you all updated! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
I refuse to carry it and am so scared when I help mum with my sister make the pudding, to stir the pudding on the off chance that I might crack or break this precious bowl! But mum insists that that is the bowl that we have to make the pudding in, for the rest of the year it's stored carefully away, wrapped in a towel, to ensure it doesn't get broken!
Last year, my first Christmas as a coeliac I didn't have the pudding. This year, I modified my great grandmothers recipe (she was the first generation to read and write), so it's highly likely that this recipe is much older and was passed down verbally, like we are doing now, with mother and daughters helping make the pudding and learning the special little tricks! That's why this recipe is so precious! It's a piece of my family history. So I didn't want to cook a pudding from any other recipe, I adapted this wonderful original recipe to be gluten free, so I could eat it! It was just a blending of flours and almond meal and I achieved the perfect balance! But the tricky part of the pudding is not the making, even though my mum made us do everything how her mum did! We made breadcrumbs from stale bread with our fingers, no blenders or mix masters, everything had to be done how it was done 100 years ago!
The hardest part of these puddings is boiling it constantly for 4-6 hours, constantly topping it up with boiling water, it must not come off the boil! Mum has cooked it on the barbeque, but there was problems with the wind, if you are cooking inside just be careful not to burn your stove top! I think grandma had the best idea, cooking in the garage on a camping stove!
It's not an easy recipe but is so moist, delicious and a real Aussie classic. My grandma and my great grandmother, used to put thruppences in the pudding, she did it when I was a child still! It originated from when people didn't have much money, so instead of spending copious amounts of money on gifts, like we do now, Christmas in my grandparents and great grandparents generations was more about spending time with family, having a delicious dinner and finally being able to eat this marvelous pudding that had been hanging in muslin cloth for weeks, the thruppences was the former currency in Australia, and getting these in your slice of pudding was your little present! Fortunately I still have thruppences but I didn't and wont be putting them in my pudding!
So from generations of my family I pass on to you a slightly modified gluten free version of this precious pudding! It's best to cook this about a month before Christmas, to let the flavors blended in, you can also freeze this marvelous pudding!
Traditional GF Christmas Pudding:
Ingredients:
250g butter (leave out at room temperature)
250g sugar 4 eggs (room temperature)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup gf plain flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/2 cup dry stale gf breadcrumbs (leave out, tear into tiny pieces and remove crusts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup currants
60g mixed peel
60g dates
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbote soda
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
1/4 cup OP or normal rum
3/4 teaspoon mixed spice (or if no mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger)
1/4 teaspoon ginger
30cm calico cloth
Method:
Chop and soak fruit, essence, and rum for a min overnight (better for a few days). Sift flours and dry ingredients, add sugar, rub in butter (best with cold hands), until mixed through. Beat eggs well, until they are light and creamy and 3/4 of way up the bowl, mix in gradually to dry ingredients. Add fruit grudully, stirring well. Rub gf flour into cloth to cover about 8cm from sides, with more flour in the centre. Place cloth in a colander or bowl. Place mixture in centre of cloth, gather ends together and tie securely with string as close to mixture as possible, leaving a small break (1-2cm), to allow pudding to swell. Tie cloth and put in boiling water for 3-4 hours. Continue to add boiling water every 30 minutes, don't allow to boil dry. Puddings are best made a month or so before Xmas and can freeze. Wrap in glad wrap and finish off with a layer of foil. These puddings can store for months in the freezer and taste great 6 months later! Serve with ice cream and brandy custard, and you get to eat pudding just like everyone else! Im storing half in the freezer and half for Christmas day, the frozen half has actually shrunk, don't stress, thats what it is meant to do.
Enjoy from my family a precious recipe to yours! I did notice when eating last night it was slightly crumbly, it tastes perfect tho! I'll play around with the flour combo next year and keep you all updated! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Chocolate, Almond & Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls
I am once again participating in a Blog Hop, this time its a Festive theme, hosted by the lovely lady behind http://www.84thand3rd.com , a great food blogger! I have at least 2 entries in this Blog Hop, so I better get this started! A festive favorite in my family since I was a little girl was chocolate or rum balls! I have fond memories of cooking the chocolate balls with both my mum, Aunty and grandma! The best and most fun part as a kid was rolling the balls together, getting chocolate and coconut stuck on your fingers and licking then off when you were finished!
As we got older and became teenagers, it was trying to sneak a rum ball before mum or another grown up busted you! I'm sure the 1 tablespoon of rum in a whole batch was hardly enough to do anything! But with any teenager,it's the thrill of tasting something with alcohol and knowing your not really meant to be eating them!
The funny thing, is there is nothing specifically festive about these balls, but Christmas is the only time of the year that we make these delicious treats, maybe it's the coconut that gives it the Christmas feel!
This year I made some for friends, I decided to make some modifications to the original recipe, I added some almond meal and instead of rum I used butterscotch schnapps, a favorite drink of my friends I was making them for!
The worst thing for me was I made them with gluten biscuits, so I couldn't sample the mixture! But I'm writing this recipe out as gf, as I have a packet of gf arrowroot biscuits in the cupboard, to make these delicious Christmas balls with! Chocolate, almond & Butterscotch Schnapps!
Chocolate, Almond & Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls
Ingredients:
I packet gf plain biscuits (I'm using arrowroot gf biscuits)
I tin condensed milk
1/2 cup desicatted coconut
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons (or a slug) of Butterscotch Schnapps, to your liking
Additional desicatted coconut
Method:
1. Break individual biscuits into small pieces, place in an electric mixer and blend until there are only small pieces, a very fine substance.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix well in a bowl.
3. Place additional coconut on a plate and have a separate plate for ready made balls.
4. (this is the messy part), remove rings and jewllrey. Using your hands, roll mixture into medium to small balls, roll in coconut and place on fresh plate. Complete until all mixture is gone!
5. Place plate of made balls, in the fridge.
6. Serve and put in a bowl, or in a box with baking paper if it's a gift and decorate with ribbon or a or a bowl!
Note: you can also make this version without alochol, simply remove from ingredients and they are chocolate balls, still very tasty! To make the gluten version, simply use plain biscuits and follow the same method for the rest of the recipe (if your making for friends and you ate a coeliac don't be tempted to lick your fingers or the bowl! (just remember the puffer fish!)Also the original recipe did not have almond meal, just 1 cup of coconut, so if you have only coconut in the cupboard the recipe will work out fine!
Enjoy and Merry Christmas, Happy Baking xx
As we got older and became teenagers, it was trying to sneak a rum ball before mum or another grown up busted you! I'm sure the 1 tablespoon of rum in a whole batch was hardly enough to do anything! But with any teenager,it's the thrill of tasting something with alcohol and knowing your not really meant to be eating them!
The funny thing, is there is nothing specifically festive about these balls, but Christmas is the only time of the year that we make these delicious treats, maybe it's the coconut that gives it the Christmas feel!
This year I made some for friends, I decided to make some modifications to the original recipe, I added some almond meal and instead of rum I used butterscotch schnapps, a favorite drink of my friends I was making them for!
The worst thing for me was I made them with gluten biscuits, so I couldn't sample the mixture! But I'm writing this recipe out as gf, as I have a packet of gf arrowroot biscuits in the cupboard, to make these delicious Christmas balls with! Chocolate, almond & Butterscotch Schnapps!
Chocolate, Almond & Butterscotch Schnapps Christmas Balls
Ingredients:
I packet gf plain biscuits (I'm using arrowroot gf biscuits)
I tin condensed milk
1/2 cup desicatted coconut
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons (or a slug) of Butterscotch Schnapps, to your liking
Additional desicatted coconut
Method:
1. Break individual biscuits into small pieces, place in an electric mixer and blend until there are only small pieces, a very fine substance.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix well in a bowl.
3. Place additional coconut on a plate and have a separate plate for ready made balls.
4. (this is the messy part), remove rings and jewllrey. Using your hands, roll mixture into medium to small balls, roll in coconut and place on fresh plate. Complete until all mixture is gone!
5. Place plate of made balls, in the fridge.
6. Serve and put in a bowl, or in a box with baking paper if it's a gift and decorate with ribbon or a or a bowl!
Note: you can also make this version without alochol, simply remove from ingredients and they are chocolate balls, still very tasty! To make the gluten version, simply use plain biscuits and follow the same method for the rest of the recipe (if your making for friends and you ate a coeliac don't be tempted to lick your fingers or the bowl! (just remember the puffer fish!)Also the original recipe did not have almond meal, just 1 cup of coconut, so if you have only coconut in the cupboard the recipe will work out fine!
Enjoy and Merry Christmas, Happy Baking xx
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