Archived News - 2009

03/22/09 - It's offical - spring is here! It may not feel like it temperature-wise, but that'll come.

We had a great meeting. As I mentioned I received a phone call from Mary Beth Richardson from
Our Daily Foods last week. Her and her brother Paul Dorn started this company to produce high quality gluten-free products and they wanted us to sample them.

Paul shared his story on becoming diagnosed. Like many, he went undiagnosed for years until he ran across the right doctor.
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Again, like many he really missed bread and set out on his quest. Throwing out many, many loaves along the way. Until now...

They brought a great sampler of their product and future products. Currently they are only offering the GF white sandwich bread.


Shown in the above picture (left to right): GF/CF Sandwich Bread, GF Pumpernickel Bread, GF Sandwich Bread, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie, Monkey Bread.

All the products had a really great taste and texture - to be honest, far exceeding my expectations. Everyone at the group liked all the products as well. Peg said "You could feed the Monkey Bread to gluten eaters and they wouldn't know the difference".

Paul & Mary Beth would like to have our local Pick n Save carry their products. They are trying to make it happen. However, if it doesn't happen, The Free Market in Appleton carries their products.

In fact, we had plans of going to Appleton after the meeting anyway, we decided to pick up a loaf and give it a real world trial. What's a bit unique about this bread is that it's frozen and ready to bake.
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As you can see, it comes in it's own pan ready to toss into the oven. There's nothing better than pulling a fresh loaf of bread out of the oven. It's even better when you don't have to do a lot work!

We brought a cooler along with us, but by the time we got home, the loaf was already starting to thaw. We put it in the fridge Saturday night and planned on baking it Sunday. On Sunday morning, the yeast was starting to wake up and get busy.

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After we got home from church, Peg set the oven to 170 and put the loaf in to rise. It rose rather nicely! It almost looked like a
Lucy episode. As you can see this is a great looking loaf of bread!

I sliced off a piece of bread for myself to have with my grilled, planked salmon. Peg asked where her piece was - she normally doesn't eat my GF bread [not because it tastes bad - heck she bakes it!]. I sliced her off a piece.

As most of you know, it's very difficult to duplicate gluten bread. The texture from gluten bread comes from...gluten. When you remove it, things are drastically altered. As we're eating, I asked if she [a gluten eater] could eat this bread - she said yes! I think that says a mouthful.

Thanks Mary Beth and Paul for coming down to allow us to sample your great products. Good luck! I know you'll do well!


03/20/09 - Hey spring is almost here!


It's been a while since I've done an update. I've been hard at work preparing for Saturday's meeting. The topic is Cross Contamination in the Home. We're also having some guests at the meeting. A new company will be coming in to allow us to sample their new gluten-free white sandwich bread. Our Daily Foods from Wisconsin Rapids approached me about attending our meeting, I said "Come on down!"

General Mills has been busy. They've
reformulated several of their Chex products to be gluten-free and will be releasing some new gluten free products. Corn Chex, Cinnamon Chex, Strawberry Chex, and Honey Nut Chex will now use molasses instead of malt. These products should be widely available by June 1st. Be careful - stores will still have the old non-gluten-free versions on the store shelves. Please check the box and read the labels carefully!

Also Betty Crocker [a General Mills company] will be introducing
3 GF baking mixes. Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brownies, and Devils Food Cake. These will also be widely available in June.

Kudo's to General Mills for listening to the gluten intolerant community! There's a huge market to be tapped if a company can provide us safe, good tasting food as reasonable prices.



01/20/09 - Happy New Year!

January's meeting focused on
reading labels and companies that have exemplary labeling practices. Navigating this gluten polluted world is not always easy. However with some labeling laws, it's made it a bit easier. Phase II of FALCPA has not yet been activated, it has to do with labeling products as "Gluten-Free". USA has no standards as to what GF actually means.

Some companies are better than others when it comes to disclosing allergens. Some will do only the minimum required by law, others go above and beyond! It's those manufactures that we stand up salute.