Just thought I’d share this little gem, since I’ve tried just about every anti-frizz product out there and this one seems to work really quite well. I have a warning to give with it though, it is not only anti-frizz, it is also pro-curly so I imagine it will not make it to most people’s want list. I love it though, and for what it is worth, I prefer my hair on the wavy/curly side to straight despite the mass inclination the other way. Luckily I’ve married the one person on earth who thinks straight hair the inferior kind~ and we have actually gone rounds about this~ seriously had multiple fights about what is generally considered the best texture. He seems to think I say that everyone prefers straight hair in a poor-me-the-lonely-outsider kind of way. When I bring up real evidence, such as when I get my hair done they always assume I want it blown dried straight and there are always articles about how to straighten hair~ to which my husband says, “so you are getting your evidence from Cosmo?” He thinks everyone desires some wave in their and that stick straight is the worst thing a person would have to deal with~ obviously he does not read Cosmo, thank goodness. But anyway, back to this product I found at Whole Foods. It is Shikai’s Color Reflect Curl Enhancer, though I found it makes my hair more beach-wavy than truly curly like salon products do.
Author: kristenann
Gluten free, mainly vegetarian herbalist living in beautiful Western Washington, but love to travel. My two boys have various other food intolerances including gluten, so I think and write about food quite a bit. Author of the children's book, The Knight Owl, which has it's own blog:http://theknightowlblog.wordpress.com/.
Einkorn Flour
Apparently Einkorn isn’t the only ancient wheat with possibilities for gluten intolerant, but it seems to be the most popular. I found this page when doing a bit more research which gives some promising information. The most interesting thing I found on that site was how different Einkorn is to modern versions of wheat. Another site gives a bit more information on some of the other ancient wheat varieties and is even a resource for buying the seeds so you can have your own ancient wheat garden. I still have not tasted it any of it yet to vouch for taste or digestibility, but I will…soon.
More on Ancient Wheat
So I’ve been hearing about this ancient wheat possibly being digestible for us gluten challenged people and have found one company that is making pastas from one of the strands, and selling the flour. It is called Einkorn wheat and the company I have stumbled upon is Jovial. I have liked their gluten free pastas for a while now, and really enjoy their blog and recipes but up until now I have kind of ignored the whole ‘ancient wheat’ thing thinking it wasn’t for gluten intolerant people. Now I’m starting to hear mumblings that perhaps it is. Obviously, a celiac needs to take extra precaution, but for all those people who don’t eat wheat just because it makes them feel awful in one way or another, this just might be a way to enjoy it again. I don’t know~ I haven’t tried it yet myself. Funny how I used to eat wheat nonstop and now I’m stalling about trying this new development of an ancient grain, but I really don’t like feeling sick. (Shocking, I know.) And really I’d like some more evidence before eating it and possibly feeling sick and causing damage to myself. But, if anything is going to lure me in it will be the possibility of a hearty European style loaf of bread to eat. I could eat alternative grains for pasta, pastries, crackers, and just about anything else quite happily for the rest of my life, but a good old fashioned hunk of crusty bread just can’t be made without wheat. Or at least it doesn’t taste nearly as good, in my humble opinion. Of course, that also means I need to learn how to make a good old fashioned European crusty loaf myself, and apparently Einkorn is tricky to work with (which is exactly why it has gone out of fashion while the higher yield, higher gluten wheats have flourished.) As soon as I drum of the nerve to tackle the baking, and the eating, it’ll be documented here first.
Tofu Wraps
This was a total use-up-what-is-in-the-house kind of dinner, but my oldest loved it and I thought it was pretty good too. Here is the tofu part:
1 14oz pkg tofu cut into 1 inch cubes or smaller
2 T toasted sesame oil
2 T gluten free tamari
1 T red wine vinegar
1 T lime juice
2 t (Thai or lemon or regular) basil
Mix the liquids, pour over tofu, add basil and let it sit while next part is starting, for which one needs…
2 big cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil poured into a fairly big pan
Heat the oil, add garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the tofu and extra liquid, black pepper and Mediterranean salts and cook for 8-10 minutes. Set aside when finished.
For my son I warmed up a flour tortilla, added some greens to the middle, cut green onions, red peppers and garlic sauce. On top of the veggies I added the tofu, then wrapped it all up into a handheld meal. He loved it, though he did not trouble himself to put back the red peppers that fell out, so I’m not sure I’ll add those next time.
As for me I wanted to use up the gluten free hot dog buns in the house, (their date is today and I can’t possibly put another gf package of uneaten bread type stuff into the freezer. With just one person eating gluten free in the house I end up with a lot of freezer food), so I put down a big bed of cilantro on the bottom of the bun and added the tofu. It was awesome. For those that don’t like cilantro (and I know you are a passionate people) I’d recommend Thai basil instead. The tofu is quite Asian tasting with that toasted sesame oil so sticking with Asian herbs would be best.
Ancient Wheat vs. Current Wheat
We just got back from a family’s house where I heard some interesting information in the most unlikely setting. All the kids were settled in front of a huge outdoor screen watching Toy Story 3 while the adults sat around the porch table sipping adult drinks and chatting after a long summer week, when the subject turned to wheat as is often the case at any eating/drinking event where I show up. I don’t instigate it, usually, it is just what happens~ some friend or family member will inevitably say, “you should try this…oh, can you eat this?” and a discussion ensues about what is (blank) made out of and does it contain wheat…? Tonight it was scotch which began the “is it or isn’t it” discussion. For those wondering, scotch is apparently made from barley which is indeed off the gluten-intolerants’ list of OK to ingest, so I did not get to try the “you gotta try this” drink of the night. But that is fine~ there was wine and I was happy and it led to a fellow there saying that there are small farms planting the ancient wheat varieties which have been completely out of the food system for the last 40 years, replaced by the current wheats that are stock full of gluten and harder to digest. According to this guy who seems to have been following the wheat news of late, people who are gluten intolerant may be able to digest these ancient wheats! I don’t know~ I’ll have to do some research, but not tonight…For now I’ll go to bed with a bit of hope of eating a real wheat bread again, maybe someday.
Kids’ Crazy Tastebuds
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| 1st birthday |
Everyone knows tastes change, but it is really strange to watch someone’s tastes change radically and suddenly, as my oldest’s have been lately. He has always been a huge fruit eater. On his first birthday his big treat was letting him eat as many strawberries as he wanted, (and then the next day taking him to the doctor for diarrhea. Oops. But I figured if people let their one year olds stuff their little mouths full of as much cake as they can eat, how bad can strawberries be…) And then when he was four and I put him on a rotation diet for about a year as his food sensitivities settled down, fruit was an absolute life-saver. Whenever I thought there was just nothing I could feed him, fruit, any fruit, could always be served and he’d be happy while I scraped together something else to fill his little belly. His love affair with fruit has continued, unquestioned, until last week when something abruptly changed. His morning side bowls of strawberries started returning to the kitchen untouched. He didn’t like the blueberries this season, which means I got to eat them all and I can attest they are awesome, as always, this year as opposed to my son’s critique of, “they taste kind of rotten.” To his nearly constant statement of “I’m hungry” I have offered apples which he’s refused, and this kid has eaten one to three apples almost every day of his solid foods life! Even he is perplexed by this change, offering, with a shrug, “maybe grapes?” But no, the grapes were barely eaten and actually fruit isn’t even all of the newly unloved food, suddenly he doesn’t like quesadillas with beans anymore, a staple for years! I guess this should all give me hope that my younger one will suddenly start liking other things than the few foods he allows to pass his lips, but it is just so sudden it leaves me a bit unsettled.
Summer
Summer has me in a firm grip these days therefore writing, cooking, and pretty much everything else besides driving and playing have fallen into the ‘wait here for cooler days’ pile on my desk. Not that it is overly hot here, but the sun pulls heavily on the heart strings of people who see nothing but clouds most of the year. We have been outside everyday, at pools and parks, though not so much in our backyard which is a shame b/c it needs some love and attention. The blueberries have been picked by the birds more than my boys, my tomatoes seem to have not made it this year~ a first! And the basil looks rather parched. The sad truth is, I’m not a very good gardener. I love to plant things, but the other parts of gardening I’m rather lax about, so if the boys aren’t going out back to play, I tend to not go out back either. The garden definitely fared better when all the boys wanted to do on summer days was ride their respective vehicles around and around the little cement patio that serves as the basketball court, and run through the sprinkler. But they are bigger now and they usually play with one ball or another until it is lost over the fence and then they go inside until it magically shows up back in our yard. (Thank you neighbors!) And now the mom taxi needs to be fired up again to take my oldest and his friend to a cooking class, which they love, and my youngest and I will check out some new parks to see if we have missed anything the first half of the summer. It is August afterall, and the shadows are showing signs of enlongating with promises of Fall in the breeze.
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| Miss these days! |
Polenta with White Bean and Garlic Sauce~ Gluten Free and Vegan
The other I was walking and apparently quite hungry because I thought up a recipe I couldn’t wait to try out. Yesterday I was able to start it, but since I haven’t been to the grocery for a few days I am somewhat hampered by what I have on hand. What I did have on hand was Bob’s Red Mill corn grits which I made into rosemary infused polenta, with cannellini bean and garlic sauce/paste and some veggies on top. The polenta was easy~ I followed a mixture of directions and added rosemary (minced, and from my front yard) while it was cooking on the stove top. It was only about a T and I should have added more rosemary and/or some other herbs to the 2C water/1 C cornmeal because it was blander than I like. I didn’t add butter like a lot of the recipes recommend, which might have added a bit more taste also, so perhaps next time. I then sauteed in a pan olive oil, onions, rosemary, garlic and at the last couple of minutes, a can of cannellini beans including about half the water that was in the can. This all went directly into the food processor to make a thick sauce, to which I added about a cup of basil leaves from my back yard. I actually wanted to make a full on pesto to add a layer to this dish, but I didn’t have enough basil so did it this way instead.
Those two items went into the fridge overnight, then in the morning when I put the sauce on the polenta it looked like this:Next the chopped red peppers, artichoke hearts, and onions went on top with Mediterranean salt, black pepper, basil and oregano:
I cooked it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, and then broiled it for another 10 to get the top browned a little. It was a good hearty dish, especially served on a bed of spinach, but next time I will add a lot more herbs because it lacked flavor. The real reason I’m posting about it is that you can do this kind of thing with just about any sauce, bean, and/or veggie available and it is a great gluten free dish. I suppose you could add meat too if you wanted. Next time I will do either pesto or red sauce and add the whole beans on top with the veggies. Or I might do a refried bean version and some Mexican cheeses. The options are endless~ just be sure to have plenty of herbs on hand to make the polenta really shine and not just a carrier for the other ingredients.
"A Little Nothing"
That’s what my paternal grandmother would always call little gifts she would give my sister and I, often on the other’s birthday. She had a knack for downplaying any of her own acts, perhaps she knew if she didn’t they would overwhelm people with the consistency of kindness and thoughtfulness, b/c her ‘little nothings’ were in fact always quite something~ an ode to elegance, a study in grace, and the equivalent of a quiet smile and wink in a world of garishness and self-obsession. She did not live to see the internet explosion and I sometimes wonder what someone like her would think of the fb pages filled with “look at me”, and the comments that fill the space under just about any article on any website. Here’s a tip, if you want to like humanity, never read comments on newspaper sites~ it is so depressing. But honestly I think she’d laugh at it all because underneathe her composer she had a ready sense of humor that never missed a beat, and with four kids of her own, that certainly served her well. I find myself saying “a little nothing” these days and it is my own private smile that I enjoy, though people are probably left wondering if they misheard me. Today the phrase rang through my head when I woke up early and in the rare quiet decided to share just that; nothing much at all. Lately I’ve been trying to eat up what is in the freezer and refrigerator b/c we are headed out of town and the rotten machine makes a horrible sick-mechanical-cow kind of noise which means “defrost me” so my husband plans to do that while we are gone. In that effort I have found two packs of corn tortillas and over half a loaf of udi’s bread in the freezer which have made up quite a few of my meals lately. I either toast the bread or warm up the tortillas on the stovetop (after defrosting) and on both I add hummus, spinach, sliced cucumbers, green onions and garlic sauce. It is ridiculously simple but delicious, especially on the tortillas. So that’s my little nothing of the day, and I hope it means something to someone.
June-uary
I wish I could say I was the one who came up with that clever little nickname for June in the Pacific NW, but I didn’t. I overheard it at the crafts store yesterday and thought it was more than appropriate considering the rain fell in a continuous torrent all day and the temperature never got above second-layer-necessary. A friend of mine at school said her parents are ready to move because of the weather~ they came here six years ago to be close to their only child and hence only three grandchildren, but even those family bonds can’t compete with the lure of sunshine and warmer days. There is some sun peaking through the clouds today, and I see hopeful people walking around in short sleeves but the truth is summer historically hits here on July 5. It’s a common thing people say, and it’s true more often than not. Once summer gets going, it is unbeatable here~ not too humid, only a few days where it gets too hot to be enjoyable outside, lots of light and greenery and all-around-loveliness. But we wait, and wait, and wait, not so patiently, and plan our escapes to Florida until summer blinds us with beauty once more. I am very curious to see if my friend’s parents are still itching to move in September. Meanwhile I’m at a loss in the kitchen~ stuck somewhere between salad and soup. Maybe I’ll cook up some kale chips and see if I can add anything else to the warm oven…feeling in a rut. Time to troll for recipes I guess. On a gluten free product note, the whole family loves kinnikinnick’s graham style crackers. Their first ingredient is pea starch! How’s that for unique?! They are really good.
spice of life blog 