Our Food Allergies Food Allergies Blog Hop!

Welcome to our very first Our Food Challenges Blog Hop. (This page won't officially open until 9am, so please don't try and post anything until then).With this month's focus being Food Allergies. Please follow the list of instructions to enter in our Blog Hop. This month's Blog Hop coincides with Australia's Allergies Awareness Week, so spread the word, share your allergy stories, pass on the link to this Blog Hop, create more awareness to allergies in Australia, this is also our mission. The Blog Hop will be happening monthly with a different focus each month, to cover all our various food challenges. Although this is not the first Blog Hop I'm participating in, it's the first that I'm running so please be patient with me, if I miss an instruction or a point here or there, just send me an email mmoagflife@gmail.com and I will endeavour to amend it asap. I cannot credit this Blog Hop without the wonderful support from Suzie from AusAllergy, who will be one of your host's in the upcoming months', the list of future host will be updated on Wednesday AEST. Please feel free to join us on AEST 8.30pm Tuesday nights to chat on Twitter, simply use the #ausallergy tag to join, we love new people and everyone is very friendly and caring.

Without further ado here is my story, dedicated to my oldest and dear friend;

I met my friend when we were just 8 years old, young children in primary school. I was drawn to her, her slight English accent and we just bonded as children do. It wasn't long into our friendship that I discovered that my friend had a severe anphylaxis reaction to peanuts.
So I was only young when I learnt just how dangerous food allergies could be, in the late 1980s, this was something that wasn't as common knowledge as it is today's society. I still recall going out to dinner and my friend eating a lolly (candy) which obviously contained some degree of peanuts or peanut oil in it. I sat there watching, as her face began to become blotchy and puffy, her lips swelled as did her eyes, and it was all from just one lolly.

Throughout primary and high school my friend was very cautious of what those around her ate and had to ensure to stay well away from anyone consuming peanut butter, at risk of cross contamination.

Thankfully in 2012, peanut allergies are taken very seriously and the organisation that my friend works for has taken on board a no peanut policy in the office, there is a no tolerance policy of staff bringing in peanuts, the government work place has taken this stance because if she digests peanuts it could be life threatening! There is an epi- pen not only in my friend's bag but at the office, this is so important because any accidental digestion of nuts could lead to a life threatening situation, and the epi- pen may very well save her life. She has pictures around her office stating that she cannot have peanuts. This visual approach has been supported by group memos that have been sent around to all staff informing them of my friends condition.

Please take all allergies seriously, particularly if you are a chef or in the industry. A slight cross contamination even on the smallest level can be result in death to a person and recent cases overseas at schools and in the public have. People death in anaphylaxis can literally occur in minutes!
For all those people who have anaphylaxis reactions please make sure you carry your epi-pen, and that it is in date, this could one day save your life. Also please contemplate wearing a medi- bracelet that informs people of your condition, in case of an extreme reaction; you may not have the opportunity to tell people what you are allergic too, this could again save your life.
I hope that you enjoy our first blog hop for Our Food Challenges; remember to participate all you need is a blog and a food allergy story to share.

Steps to participate (please be kind if I miss some I will fix them straight away!)

1. Copy and paste OFC  logo that appears before my story, our a link to my page, and paste it on your post so that your post will be able to link back to mine.
2. Grab the linky code,(in red at the bottom of the screen it will say get code here) and put your blog into edit HTML mode and put the code at the bottom of your post, once your click off HTML, you won't be able to see the code but it will allow all the other post from the Blog Hop to appear on your screen.
3. Enter your details into the Linky Tools Screen, your name is the name of your Blog, and your link is to copy and paste your blog.
4. The message will come to me for approval and I as soon as I click ok, you will be able to see your post come up with the other stories (I will endeavour to get to the computer as often as possible but please don't fret, your story will be published or if there is a problem I will be in contact with you).
5. The steps in Linky Tools are pretty much self explanatory, even for a beginner, when I did my first Blog Hop I managed to fill everything out without too much problem. But please remember I am an email away.

Let the Blog Hop begin. Happy Allergy Week, may everyone have an allergy/reaction free week!

This is a Blog Hop!

---

1. Allergy Revolution | Visit blog

You are next... Click here to enter
This list will close in 2 days, 0 hrs, 44 min (5/25/2012 9:00 PM Australia - Australian Eastern Standard Time)

What is a blog hop?
Get the code here...

Get your own Linky Tools

The celebrity GF Diet Fad my thoughts

If you are like me and have watched the news today, you would be aware that reality TV star Kim Kardaishan has today claimed a dramatic weight loss to a GF diet!

No Kim is not suffering from Coeliac disease, or gluten intolerance, she has deemed like a small group of USA and UK celebrity's that going gluten free is the quickest way to weight loss.

Apart from my links to the diet and the postitive benefits of autism, I and most other GF Food bloggers that will not support the recent dietery claims by this branch of celebritys that a GF diet is the best way to loose weight.

Sure I lost a little bit of weight when I went on the diet, I thought mainly I lost the bloating that was happening from constantly eating gluten. Honestly I think that celebrity's putting light on such a serious diet and an autoimmunue disease make the general public take the disease and the diet less seriously.

There are lots of benefits in eating gluten, in the grain, in the fibre and other great dietary things that you benefit from while eating gluten. Not something that I would choose to remove from my diet.

Would I choose to sit hungry at parties as the finger food does not contain anything I can eat, whould I choose a diet, that makes me walk out of restaurants as there is nothing that I can eat.

I guess the benfeit these celebrities who choose a gf diet as a diet not due to a disease or intolerance, is they can honestly eat whatever they feel like eating, without suffering from a crippling reaction which can last up to days. At most they may feel a little bloated.

But as you can see this new diet fad has made me outraged, that such shallow people would put real diseases like coeliac disease and gluten intolerance as something that is not to be given any real stance, but a focus of a fad diet,not an autoimmune disease.



Grow up celebebrity dieters, think about the real people you are affecting, think that GF is related to an actually autoimmune diease

GF Gran's Cinnamon Sponge Cake

My gran passed away from bowel and liver cancer in 2007 too quickly at 73, too young and with far too much life left in her.
I have many fond memories of baking with her, helping her bake, tasting her baking, it was always a treat. My grandparents were farmers and moved to a more suburban rural area in their retirement. They didn't have much money and for as long as I can remember birthday presents, where we got to pick our favourite cake that Gran made and that was our present, it was always delightful.

My last birthday that Gran was alive was my 25th and she made at my request her famous Cinnamon Sponge. It has taken me 5 years to even build up the courage to make this dish, my favourite, and it held so many memories, thus the reason why it's taken so long for me to even try and make this cake.
Since Gran had made my cake I had been diagnosed with Coeliac disease, and I changed the flour consistency in the original recipe, so I really had no idea how this recipe would turn out. I tried to get into my Gran's head when I was baking this cake, it was for my sister's birthday lunch. I had the eggs and butter at room temperature, I sifted the flour three times so they were in a fine consistency, not required in the recipe but something that I knew was common in that era.

There were tears when I was making this cake it held such important meaning to me, mum was helping me and we greased the tin and added flour, thinking that this would be enough for the cake. When we turned them out they stuck a little bit, there were tears, this cake meant so much too me, it had taken me five years to make this cake, to live in my Gran's big cooking footsteps. There were tears when it didn't turn out quite perfect. I highly recommend when baking any gluten free cake, particularly sponges, make sure you use baking paper. It saves any tears.

                                                    This is the height the butter and sugar should be
In the middle of the cake was mock cream. The first attempt was not a success, Gran had said to add the syrup, she forget to add gradually, knowing Gran she would have assumed that we just knew to add the syrup gradually. There was a curdled mess to start with, round two worked much better, I waited until the syrup really cooled and added very slowly. This time we had success.

                                                      Mock Cream consistency
Gran always had a chocolate icing to the top, after discussion with my sister and my mother we decided to add cinnamon to the icing. Gran did not write this down in her recipe but we decided she would have added it.

                                                    Cinnamon Cake after coming out of oven
The first bite was perfect, the mixture was an explosion of flavours of memories, it was as close to perfect as I could get. I got the approval from Grandpa, which meant so much too me, particularly when I spoke to my Aunty who he had already spoke to about the cake. I had obviously done a good job to make such an impression.

It gave me a new appreciation for Gran, this is a cake that you don't make every day it's a special occasion cake and I cherish each memory I have of her making this cake for me. I will make a pledge to continue on with this tradition of making this lovely cake on special occasions. It's not easy but well worth every effort. For the first time I have take pictures of the various steps in making this cake, I hope this helps you. Please email me on mmoagflife@gmail.com for any questions or help.

Do you have a family recipe that you would love to share, that it took you a while to make, for whatever reasons, I would love to share your story.

Without further ado here is the recipe:

GF Cinnamon Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup gf self raising flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup gf corn flour
6 tablespoons boiling milk
57g butter or 2ozs
2tps cinnamon
1 tsps cocoa

Mock Cream:
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup caster sugar
113g butter or 4ozs
1/2 tsps vanilla

Icing:
2 tbls butter
2 tbls milk
1 tbls cocoa
1tps cinnamon 1 cup icing sugar
Add more milk or icing sugar if needed.

Method:
Once the cakes are cool spread the mock cream onto one of the cakes and spread evenly then place the other cake on top. Now it's time to make your icing. Mix all the ingredients for the icing together, ensure the butter is soft, even if you zap it in the microwave for 10 seconds, start with a cup of icing and if you need more milk or icing sugar add it. Once it is made up and all lumps have been mixed out, spread evenly over the top of the cake. You sponge cake is now complete. Don't worry if the texture of the cake becomes a little firmer around the cream, I think it's just the reaction.

I hope that this cake will become as special to you as it has to me and my family. I encourage you if there is a special dish that your mother, grandmother or aunty made and they are no longer with us, do build up that courage to make it. The memories that first mouthful brought back almost made me cry. It wasn't Gran's cake but it was a close gluten free effort that made me proud and I know that she was there in spirit helping me.

Don't forget you still have a few days to vote for my blog in the People's Choice Awards, I would really appreciate all your votes. Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @MMOAGFL where I'm running a competition to get 1.5k followers, there are 3 pieces of custom made and designed jewelry to win, to enter follow me on twitter, follow me on my blog, Re tweet daily. I also appreciate you to like us on Facebook, that's extra bonus points.
I hope you enjoy this GF Cinnamon Sponge Cake as much as we did, if you don't need to make this cake GF just use 1 1/4 cups SR flour instead of the flour combination I have used.
Please share your stories of beloved recipes with me, I can't wait to hear from you.