Jules did a great job and showed how easy it can be to make great tasting gluten free foods.  Jules brought already made items (day before) and also showed how to make each of these items live during the demo.  This was great because we could sample each item a day after it was made… as many celiacs know, most baked goods don’t taste that great the day after you make them.  Her items were all very delicious that she had made he day before.

Jules Shepard Demonstration

So you are probably asking yourself, what did she prepare / demo?  Well she demonstrated how to make bread in a bread machine, pierogies, graham (like)  crackers, and finally a two-layer birthday cake.  All of which were very good.  The graham crackers were the best gluten-free ones I had ever had, light and crisp!

It was also nice to hear her talk about how you could vary the recipes to get different results… like how to make ravioli using almost the same recipe as the pierogies(for the dough).  I also enjoyed hearing about bread machines and makes me want to bust mine out of the closet again to start making breads.

At the end of the evening, she had a raffle and the group attendees could win one of three items: cake batter, graham cracker dough, or pierogi dough.  I won the cake batter, so I will be making that tomorrow night!  I also bought one her books: Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten-Free Eating.  I definitely enjoyed the demonstration and encourage those of you that are near one of Jules’ demonstration locations to attend!

Thanks to Natures Pantry for providing water and the space for the demonstration.  Thanks to Karen from the State College Celiac Support Group for initiating and organizing this event.

1. Make the pizza dough following the pizza recipe instructions
2. Spread it out onto a large piece of parchment paper, just like in the my pizza recipe instructions, except make the entire thing flat, no extra dough needed around the edge for a crust.
3. Cover spread out dough with your favorite topping stuffers (veggies, meats, cheeses)
4. Pick up one edge of the parchment paper and fold it over to the other side.
5. Now push the dough together around the edges to create a sealed stromboli.
6. DON”T try to pull the parchment paper away now, wait until it is cooked
7. Place stromboli into the oven to bake (on a pizza stone works best)
8. After 5-8 minutes, its time to flip it, so very carefully flip it over onto its other side
9. After another 10 minutes, its time to take it out and enjoy

Lisa’s presentation was good. I was surprised to learn just how many studies have been done and the amount of research being associated with Celiac Disease (CD) in the past few years.  It is obvious that CD is main stream and more people are becoming aware of it.   I appreciated her taking the time to come visit with our group.

Tonight’s meeting had an attendance of 22 people, of which 4 faces were at the meeting, hope those individuals enjoyed the meeting.  Heidi stated that we now have 50 people on our groups yahoo list server, woohoo!  This is pretty awesome.

Product Samples at the meeting tonight included:

• Allergy Free Homebaked Goods – Thanks Lisa Lundy
• GF Betty Crocker mini iced chocolate cupcakes – Thanks Janelle
• GF Bread, Graham Crackers, and Cheese Crackers – Thanks Grainless Baker
• Living Without Magazines (April/May Issue) – Thanks Living Without and Ken for making the effort to get the free copies

It was a great meeting and thanks again goes out to those that helped make it happen.

Speaking of Celiac research and awareness… tomorrow (3/18) there are two seminars happening in Happy Valley:

1. Penn State University’s Food Sciences Department will be having a seminar tomorrow afternoon @ 4:30pm; Celiac Disease: How Nutrition Can Go From Joy to Nightmare, presented by Alessio Fasano, MD, professor of pediatrics, medicine, physiology; and director, Mucosal Biology Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
2. The Mount Nittany Medical Center is also having an educational seminar tomorrow night @ 6:30pm; How to Identify A Clinical Chameleon: A Focus on Celiac Disease,  also presented by Alessio Fasano, MD.  If you can make it, check it out, besides its FREE (for a fee you can go early 6pm and enjoy a gluten free buffet).

Gluten-Free Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Tinkyada Brown Rice Grand Shells Cooked
• 4 cups ricotta cheese
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley
• 3/4 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 3 cups favorite pasta sauce

Cooking Temp and Time: 350F for 35 mins

As with most recipes in the Gluten Free Kitchen, the flour combinations are extremely simple using common flours available at most local grocery stores.

Anyhow, below is a photo of the finished product.  If you get a chance try this recipe out, you won’t be disappointed, and be sure to follow the instructions on the forum post. The post author showed a sweet trick (thanks to Alton Brown) to rolling the dough so that you don’t have to touch it by hand.

I have been reading about whacky cake recipes online and how they were popular during the depression when people didn’t have extra cash for things like milk and eggs.  I actually remember these cakes from my days in grade school.  The whacky cake recipes produced cakes that were great tasting and very moist.  Now, if I could just  fine one catering to a gluten free diet, I would be set.  After several nights looking, I finally found one, Kathy P’s Wacky Cake recipe.

Tonight I tried out Kathy P’s Wacky Cake recipe and was very pleased with the results!  The cake was very moist and wasn’t dense.  The cake was still heavier than a traditional cake, but that’s to be expected when cooking gluten free.  I also managed to get a tiny taste when I trimmed down the crown of the cake for stacking it.  The taste was also yummy, score!

I also bought some Cherrybrook Kitchen Vanilla Frosting (completely allergy free).  I guess I can’t have it all… the  frosting was extremely thick and almost like glue.  At one point, I thought it was going to rip the top off the cake when I pulled my knife across it.  On a plus side, it had good flavor, but working with the frosting was a nightmare compared to normal frostings.  I think I am going to need to try and make a frosting from scratch so I can get the right consistency.

The important part is that I finally found the cake recipe I am going to use.  Thanks Kathy Przywara, your recipe is going to make a little girl very happy for her 3rd birthday!

Casey and I shared a GF Cheese Pizza and the kids had regular personal cheese pizzas.  Unos GF cheese pizza came very quickly, almost as quick as the kids.  Unos GF Cheese Pizza was a very thin crust, much thinner than Corinado’s and extremely thing compared to my gluten free pizzas I make at home.  Unos GF Cheese Pizza had decent flavor and I would most likely have it again when traveling with the family.  The price was decent too:  $10 for a 12-14 inch pizza.

So if  you are out and about on travel, and looking for a decent GF pizza, give Unos a try.

Tonight was recipe exchange night and several people provided copies of their recipes, and some even brought samples of their yummies!  I took my favorite pizza crust recipe as well as the peanut butter chocolate pie I so enjoy.

Ken and Karen brought a motherload of freebees from various gluten free food companies: Bob’s Red Mill, Quin0a, and others.  Bob’s Red Mill send 20+ bags of their new GF Corn Meal!  The same with Quinoa, loads of their corn+quinoa blend pasta.  This is really amazing how these two companies chose to be so giving and supplying these samples.  

Tonight Heidi also covered the proposal of developing a board for the group, pres, secretary, public relations, etc.  Casey and I would definitely like to help, but need to figure out just how much time we can provide since Tyler and Hailey keep up pretty busy.  We will see, I know that if the group continues to grow like this we are definitely going to need some sort of board of people to keep things running smoothly.  

Thanks again to Heidi for organizing the meeting. Thanks Ken and Karen for contacting these companies about samples and bringing those samples to the meeting.

Casey made the bread from a recipe on the back of a Pamela’s Products Baking and Pancake Mix.  She said it was so  easy and the results were definitely the same as everything we have made with this mix, super yummy.  Below are some photos for you to enjoy.