LIGHTEST CHOCOLATE MOUSSE EVER?

At Gothamist, Danielle Sucher offers a simple dairy-free gluten-free chocolate mousse recipe, along with a tip: "it is best to substitute water for cream when making your emulsion."

For contrast, here's a heavy chocolate mousse.



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"NAVIGATING THE GLUTEN MINE FIELD"

Ready for a sequel to my recent posts Meet the Parents and Diets and Relationships?

Food writer Jean Stevens of New Jersey's Herald News starts her article "Navigating the gluten mine field" (February 27, 2008) by showing how well Jane Grubin accommodates the gluten-free diet of her son-in-law, Ben Cappel. The article covers a lot of gluten-free ground and ends with a glimpse of pizza envy between a Passaic educator and his wife, who was recently diagnosed with celiac disease.

They might pick up some pointers about coping from this accompanying slide show

Stevens also has an overview of "Gluten-free local businesses" and a blog post entitled "Gluten-free in Passaic, Fair Lawn, and beyond!"

CONTE'S COMES TO MIDTOWN!

I first heard about the glories of Conte's Gluten-Free Pasta some months ago, then finally found some at Get Healthy America in Plainview, Long Island. I especially enjoyed the stuffed shells and the plump pasta pillows that are Conte's ravioli, and wondered when, if ever, I'd find them in New York City.

Well, I found them—at the Westerly Natural Market in Midtown West!

Here's what Conte's director Judy A. Sabella wrote to me about the safety of Conte's gluten-free products:

We are a USDA/FDA-approved facility, USDA est. #18969. Although we also process wheat, we take very seriously our responsibility to use good manufacturing practices to segregate materials and production to avoid cross-contamination.

As a USDA facility our machines, mixers, packers, etc are broken down at the end of each day, thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. The production room itself is washed down and cleaned.

On gf production days all equipment is cleaned a second time in the morning before production begins. During gf production ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER PRODUCT is introduced into the production area. If we are not running a full day of gf production we will do the gf first, empty the production room and then begin "regular" production. At no time do we have both items in the production area.

As I mentioned before our complete gf line is All-Natural, Wheat-Free, Soy-Free, non-GMO, and contain NO WBRO. I also want to mention that we have been manufacturing our gf line for close to ten years and I have never heard from anyone who has had a problem with any of them.

In case I didn't tell you before, here's some more good news. We are currently working on a variety of wheat-free/gluten-free microwave meals including things like Cheese Lasagna, Meat Lasagna, Vegetable Lasagna, Stuffed Shells w/Tomato Sauce, Cheese Manicotti w/Tomato Sauce, and, Spaghetti & Meatballs w/Tomato Sauce, as well as several others. We use our own gf Tomato Sauce and gf Meatballs. I anticipate these items becoming available some time in February.

Here's a picture of the pasta at Westerly; it's true that it's on the pricey side, but I assure you that the 191.84/lb. unit price is a complete error.


















Photo: David Marc Fischer

DOCTORS OF TOMORROW!

Here, from a med student blog called Annals of Medical School is a talk entitled Battles With Gluten: Celiac Disease. It's practically a very special episode of Scrubs!

They should just get more up-to-date on the gluten-free beer front. That might put a big smile on Kris's face!



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MEET THE PARENTS

So now you've learned valuable lessons about diets and relationships, and, after three years of togetherness, you figure it's finally time to introduce the parents to each other. But here's the thing: One of you is gluten-free, one parent has to avoid nuts and alcohol, and all of the parents avoid spicy food.

What to do? Well, if you're Adam Streisfeld, you contact the Washington Post's Chef on Call, who gets DC chef Janis McLean to prepare a banquet of tea-smoked trout and spinach salad; lemon-scented roasted chicken garnished with baby turnips, sauteed kale and roasted carrots; quinoa pilaf; and citrus-roasted pineapple with mango sorbet and toasted coconut. You can read about this fantastic family feast in the February 20, 2008 article "A Comfortable Introduction, Gluten-Free."

But here's an alternative approach to such gatherings: Just meet for tea and coffee! And dessert!! Simple, yes? You can avoid exhausting yourselves cooking, keep the focus on getting to know one another, and (perhaps) avoid spending too much of your time talking about your diets. Not that there's anything wrong with that—it's just an option to keep in mind, especially if Janis McLean happens to be busy..

That way you have more time for laughs and looking through the old photo albums.



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HOPE FOR HOSPITAL FOOD?

Food served to hospital patients ought to be safe and nutritious and compatible with medical diets, including gluten-free diets. That isn't always the case, to say the least—but now there's a high-profile advocate for better hospital food: Prince Charles!

Here is a portion of "See food as a medicine, says Prince," a February 5, 2008 article from The Press Association.

The Prince of Wales has urged hospital trust bosses to see food as a "medicine" in itself as he highlighted the importance of nutritional meals being served to patients.

Charles made the comments at the Royal Brompton Hospital where around 20 chief executives and senior managers had gathered to hear about the institution's pioneering catering initiative.

The Royal Brompton in Chelsea, West London serves its patients freshly made meals created from produce 20% of which is either sourced locally or is organic.

It also offers a range of foods which are free from additives, gluten, dairy or genetically modified produce and low in fat.

The Prince said to the hospital chief executives: "We need to see food as a medicine in itself."

He also told them: "At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious people largely go to hospital to get well and obviously the food we eat does make a difference to our general health even when we are not ill.

"So it does seem even more crucial the food hospital patients are given helps rather than risks hindering the process of recovery."

Hear, hear!



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ENJOY LIFE'S SNICKERDOODLES ON TV

Enjoy Life's Snickerdoodles will be featured on the Rachael Ray Show (Monday, February 18, 2008), as noted by Erin at Gluten-Free Fun. Airtime on New York City's ABC-TV is 10 am; check here for other times.

Previously, Rachael Ray shined her spotlight on gluten-free 100% Parmesan Gourmet Wafer Crisps.