And Now Cupcakes!

I figured that if I had so much success with the muffins I had to try cupcakes. I found a good carrot cake recipe and started adapting it. Usually carrot cake calls for soda and buttermilk, but when I used that the chickpea flour mixture tended to puff up, spread and then sink. I tried to make powdered sugar in my Ninja but only with moderate success. The frosting was slightly grainy and dense. But when I served the cupcakes at a family gathering Saturday they raved about them, even liked the dip in the middle-a good well for extra frosting they said.

But I was out for perfection so I tried again today. I added a little more flour and subbed baking powder and milk for the soda and buttermilk. Got pretty close!

So here is my altered recipe:

Carrot Cupcakes

1 3/4 C sugar
3/4 C light cooking oil (I use safflower)
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract (can use vanilla but almond is better)
3/4 C milk
2 C grated carrots
2 1/2 C chickpea flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum (I use it instead of xanthan gum, tummy doesn't like xanthan)
1 C sunflower nuts (if you can tolerate, you can use pecans or walnuts)

Blend sugar, oil, eggs, almond, and milk until smooth. Stir in carrots. Whisk or sift together chickpea flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Mix into carrot mixture. Stir in sunflower nuts. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins, it makes 27 so I had to improvise with three of my ramekins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until top springs back with gentle pressure. Cool and frost.

And now for the frosting, which I am very proud of. I can't do any commercially prepared powdered sugar because they either have cornstarch or tapioca starch, and I can't have either. Grandson says the frosting is "amazing!"

Granulated Sugar Frosting

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
Milk

Cream sugar and cream cheese, beat in almond. Beat in enough milk to make a spreadable frosting, probably 2-3 tablespoons. Beat the heck out of it. Frost the cupcakes. Pour a cup of coffee and try not to eat more than a couple. Oh heck, eat what you want, how often do super-allergics get a safe delicious treat like this? Not often enough, that's what I say!

Next I'm going to try the knock-off Starbucks lemon cake in cupcakes, I can feel my jeans getting tight!

Remember to check your sources, read your labels and use safe for you ingredients.

The Muffin!

I'm always looking for ways to use my limited ingredients to make something that might be a change from the routine. This is the fourth time I've made my made-up recipe and I think I have a winner! One of the tricks is using guar gum. I had dismissed it because I cannot tolerate xanthan gum at all and judged them to be in the same category. But I put down my prejudices and did some research, xanthan gum is a mold grown on corn while guar is made from guar beans. So I gave it a shot. I now have happy little muffins tucked in the freezer waiting for me.

Pretty cute, don't you think?

So here's my recipe. If course check out your ingredients to make sure they're safe for you:

Marty's Muffins

Basic recipe:
1 3/4 C chickpea flour (garbanzo)
4 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp guar gum
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
3/4 C milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter or spray 12 muffin cups. You can use cupcake liners if you like. Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs, oil and milk, stir into dry mixture. Mix til smooth-ignore the rule that says you can't stir muffin batter too much or it will get tough. That only applies if your flour has gluten. Scoop into muffin pans, a small ice cream scoop works great for this. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes until brown.

I like to add sunflower nuts to mine, a half cup or so, and this morning I added a little more sugar and swirled a little cinnamon sugar into them. They tasted like a much-missed cinnamon roll! Chocolate chips are good as well. Then at lunch I made another batch and stirred in 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese and 1 1/2 tsp dried chives. Now I don't know which are my favorites!

el Alce con Nopalitos (Elk and Prickly Pear)

In our travels to Mexico I have fallen in love with nopalitos.  I first had them in a tortilla with farmer cheese and a yummy different salsa.  They're supposed to be really good for you.  I went searching for the farmer cheese here and found some at the local grocer, but it was more aged, what I found in Mexico was more like a fresh cheese.  But I found nopalitos, in a jar.  Today I had elk steak thawing and Stan asked when we were going to eat the nopalitos.  The wheels started turning and this is what I came up with.  This goes really fast-the longest part was waiting for the rice to cook.

el Alce con Nopalitos

1 1/2 pounds elk steak, cut in small cubes

3 Tablespoons potato starch

1-2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

10-12 ounces chicken stock

12 ounce jar nopalitos, drained and rinsed (the jar I found had serrano peppers, cilantro and onion-bonus!)

Combine potato starch, salt and pepper; dredge elk in mixture. Brown in oil.  Add cilantro, chipotle and chicken stock.  Cook over medium heat until elk is done-5-7 minutes.  The combination of stock and potato starch make a nice sauce.  Add more stock if it gets more thick.  Add nopalitos and heat through.  Serve over rice, or in my case I served it over bean threads.  Stan had the rice and loved it, his exact words were, "Yeah, you can make this again."  High praise for Mr. Cool.

I think I can make it again, too!

Crackers! (Gluten Free)

I finally more or less perfected my cracker recipe after months of fooling around with ingredients. The recipe was originally for tortilla chips, but they were a boatload of work and super messy, so I set out to make it my own.

Chickpea Crackers

1 cup tapioca starch
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1/4 cup cold water
Extra tapioca starch

Beat egg together with oil, flax and water, set aside.  Stir dry ingredients together, stir in egg mixture. The mixture will be pretty soft. Turn out on a surface generously covered with tapioca starch. Knead a bit.

Don't be afraid to load on the tapioca starch.

Roll out in small batches. Try to get the dough as thin as you can. It's pretty sticky so just keep dusting with starch.

Cut out with a dusted cookie cutter. I use a small round cutter but you can cut them bigger if you like, adjust cooking time for the size. I've also used a pizza cutter and made squares, much faster but the round cracker is more uniform.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick with a fork. You can put them pretty close together, they don't spread.

Sprinkle a little salt over (don't skip this, it really makes a difference in the flavor). Bake at 375°. Start with 10 minutes and add time, a minute at a time until crackers are brown on the edges.  A good way to tell if they're done is when they loosen from the pan. Recipe makes about 100 small

I had a hard time keeping them from cracking in two, so I added the egg, switched from butter to oil, and added the flax.

It's so nice to have a good snack alternative. I've done just cheese, but my favorite is a smear of cream cheese and a dab of homemade pepper jelly. Yep, I eat pretty well for being an allergic chick!

My Mom's Ginger Cookies (Gluten-Free)

After the success using chickpea flour for the chocolate chip cookies, I moved on to the ginger cookies my mom used to make.  Stan and I have both made the recipe and people just go nuts over them.  So now the challenge-would they still drive people nuts if there was no wheat in them?  That would be a big affirmative!  We were coffee hosts at church this morning and we heard comments like, "These cookies are so good!" and "You're kidding me-these aren't gluten-free!"  Yay!

So here is my recipe:

My Mom's Ginger Cookies

1 cup softened butter

1 2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 eggs

2 cups chickpea flour

1 1/3 cup tapioca flour

2/3 cup potato starch

4 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

Of course use safe-for-you ingredients.  Preheat oven to 375.  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and molasses.  Beat til fluffy.  Stir together the rest of the ingredients and stir into butter mixture.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  (Don't skip the parchment, makes all the difference)  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.  Check, if cookies need a bit more browning turn pan and give it one more minute.  Remove from pans and cool.  Makes about four dozen.

Pizza Crust Victory!!

Sorry for not posting on this blog for a while-I'm finding out that just maybe two blogs is one too many.  My attention span is too short.  But for now I'll keep this one, even posting sporadically.

The one thing I've missed really badly has been pizza.  Not the sauce so much-I've never been a tomato person-but the chewy crust and all those spicy meats and melty cheeses......

A few weeks back I was perusing on Pinterest (yes, I got suckered in too!) and I ran across TWO recipes for pizza crust made out of cauliflower.  I know!!!

One called for raw and the other called for cooked.  I made both at different times and thought both were delicious.  But I liked different things on each one, so decided to combine recipes today-I think I have a winner.  So here it is, in its delicious simplicity:

Marty's Cauliflower Pizza Crust

1 small pkg frozen cauliflower
2 eggs
pinch salt
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Microwave the cauliflower in a glass dish for 3-5 minutes, enough to cook the "raw" out of it but not enough to make it mushy.  Drain and let cool to lukewarm.  Pulse in a food processor until it's the consistency of rice.  Beat the eggs a bit, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir til well blended.  This won't be firm like regular pizza dough-it will be pretty squishy.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment and spread half the dough on each pan.  Pat it out with the back of a spoon until it's a thin, nice round.  Bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes, until it's brown on the edges and has little flecks of brown across the top.

Now top it with anything you want-I made a white sauce with 4T mayonnaise and a sprinkle of garlic.  Then I topped it with pepperoni and browned, drained Italian sausage.  I sprinkled some shredded Parmesan over, then a generous amount of mozzarella cheese.  Put it back in the oven (same temp) until it starts to bubble a bit and the cheese is melting deliciously over the pizza.  Cut and enjoy.  You'll be able to eat this with your hands if you like.

Makes me hungry all over again just looking at it!

A Quick Hint

I have found, in all my baking experiments, that it's extremely difficult to get a light texture in your wheat-free baked goods.  Especially, as in my case, when you can't use rice flour.  A few weeks ago it hit me-what about club soda?  So first I used it in place of milk for some cupcakes, which were pretty successful, and last night I used it in biscuits.  They were very good!  The thing you have to do with non-gluten flours is cut back a bit on the liquid, since there's no gluten to hold the dough together.  The recipe called for 2/3 cups of milk and I put in 1/2 cup of club soda instead.  It worked perfectly and the biscuits even held together better than they have in my other experiments!  And don't worry if the club soda isn't the freshest-I used some that barely has any fizz and it worked fine.  Next on my agenda is scones-if it works for biscuits it should work for them!

A Nice Fall Soup

Hubby and I were thinking a nice hearty soup would be tasty at this time of year. I said we needed to use some of the cabbage left from the garden, but didn't know what to put with it. We started hauling things out of the freezer and the garden and this is what we came up with. The pork roast I used was left from a huge one we had cut up to barbecue and serve for my DIL's 40th birthday. (It was raw when we started the soup process.)

1 1/2 pounds pork roast, any kind, cubed
Salt and Pepper
1/2 tsp celery seed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound Applegate Farms organic smoked pork sausage, cubed
6 big carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
3 medium potatoes, cubed

Coat pork in salt, pepper and celery seed. Heat a big soup pot with olive oil, add pork and brown. Cook it until the liquid boils off and the meat really starts to brown and coats the bottom of the pan. (This is where you get all the good flavor, since I can't use most of the meat flavor enhancers.) Add 2 quarts of water and a bit more salt to taste. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to a simmer and cook for 3-4 hours, adding more water if necessary.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook til tender, adding more water if needed. I cooked mine early in the day and put it back on the stove to warm while the biscuits baked. I thickened it with a small amount of instant potatoes-just enough so that the soup wasn't really runny.

Enjoy!

Pancakes

Up until now my wheatless pancakes have been a bit heavy and dry, but when I added sorghum to the equation and took out the Bob's all-purpose flour, they improved immensely. They're very tender, light and fluffy. Lovely Saturday breakfast:

Wheat-free Hotcakes

3/4 Cup sorghum flour
1/4 Cup potato starch
1/4 Cup tapioca flour
3 teaspoons baking powder (I use Hain, it doesn't have cornstarch in it)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water can be substituted)
1 Cup milk (soy milk would be fine)
2 tablespoons cooking oil (whatever is safe for you)

Stir dry ingredients together. Beat egg, milk and oil, stir into flour mixture. Cook on a hot lightly greased griddle. When the bubbles on top break, flip pancakes and finish cooking.

I love mine with real maple syrup!

Savory Chicken Thighs

Sometimes, being allergic to so much, I run out of dinner options. Thawed out a bunch of boneless thighs today, and put this together to use them:

Savory Chicken Thighs

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup chopped celery
cumin
coriander
Salt and pepper
2 tsp butter
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 T potato starch
Cold water
1/4 cup heavy cream

Season chicken with cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Melt butter in skillet and shake a few more seasonings over, add celery. Cook until celery starts to soften, push to one side and brown chicken in same pan. Spread the celery evenly around the chicken, sprinkle cilantro over and pour chicken stock over it. Cover and simmer til tender-20 minutes or so-turning once. Remove chicken from pan. Mix water and potato starch, stir in cream. Bring liquid in pan to a boil and whisk in the starch/cream mixture. If it thickens too quickly, add water, a bit at a time until it has a nice gravy like consistency.

Serve chicken and gravy with starch of your choice. We had potatoes but rice or pasta would be heavenly.

There is enough chicken and sauce left that I think I'll make gluten free tortillas tomorrow for chicken enchiladas. I'll just add a chopped jalapeno pepper.

Quinoa Salad

Holy cow, it's been a whole month since I posted on my cooking blog! I've been doing a bit of traveling and that always puts one behind. Anyway, I made up this recipe driving home the other day, and to my surprise it turned out really tasty.

Quinoa Salad

1 C quinoa, rinsed
2 C water
salt to taste
1 C dried cranberries
1/2 C finely chopped celery
1 C mayonnaise
1 Teaspoon yellow mustard

Be sure to always rinse the quinoa before cooking-it takes that "grassy" taste away. Cook in salted water 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed and the grain gives off its little white rings. Just before the end of cooking stir in the cranberries.

Let cool, then stir in rest of ingredients. Serve cold. Makes about 8-10 side dish servings.

I'm thinking of having some for breakfast!

Angel Food Cake!

I've been making mug cakes and chocolate melting cakes with potato starch for quite a while now, and I've observed that, because these cakes have a high egg content, their texture is a lot like angel food. So the wheels have been turning and today I experimented. I only made a half recipe so if it didn't turn out I would only have to throw away six eggs instead of twelve. Lo and behold, it was very, very good!

Here is the recipe for the large cake, not the half. It's actually a lot simpler than one would think, other than separating the eggs. You just have to figure out what to do with all those yolks. I'm going to make an omelet heavy on the yolks for breakfast a couple of mornings. Or maybe I'll have to perfect a sponge cake recipe. I'm bringing this cake for Mother's Day dinner-it's my mother-in-law's favorite dessert and I will be able to enjoy right along with everybody else!

Angel Food Cake

1 cup potato starch
3/4 cup sugar

12 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sugar

Mix potato starch and sugar thoroughly with a whisk, or sift together. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar, salt and vanilla until they form soft peaks. Add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar one tablespoon at a time, continuing to beat until meringue holds stiff peaks.

Fold potato starch/sugar mixture into egg whites about 1/4 cup at a time until all the starch is incorporated. Pour into an UNGREASED tube pan and bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or til done. (toothpick test)

Invert pan on the counter and leave upside down until cake is cool. This keeps the cake from falling. My mom used to put the tube over a full pop bottle if the cake was high enough. One time it fell out of the pan as it cooled and when she came into the kitchen it had fallen down right around the pop bottle!

Slice with a serrated knife and enjoy. We especially love it with sweetened strawberries and whipped cream.

Palomilla Steaks

This is a revised recipe. I had to rearrange a few things to accommodate my allergies. Palomilla steaks are a Cuban dish, with tons of flavor.

Palomilla Steaks

Marinade:

2 T vinegar
4 T olive oil
1 tsp marjoram
2 T finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp cumin

4 steaks, thinly sliced (sirloin is recommended but I used chucks and they were really nice)
Salt and pepper to taste

4 T butter
1/4 C finely chopped parsley
Juice of 2 limes

Marinate steaks 4 hours in the fridge. I like to put the marinade in a gallon zipper bag then rotate and squish at hourly intervals to be sure of coverage.

Heat skillet to medium high and fry steaks until crispy on the outside and a tiny bit firm to the touch-2 to 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the steaks.

Remove steaks, turn off heat, then melt butter in hot pan. Add parsley and lime juice and pour over steaks. Black beans and rice are the best companions but I baked a couple of potatoes to eat with the beans. I just heated up the beans and added a bit of chili powder, cumin, and some chopped cilantro.

Very yummy! I have a small piece of my steak left that I'm going to reheat for lunch today. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Coconut Mug Cakes

Hubby hates chocolate. People ask me how a chocolate lover like me can live with an anti-chocolate person. My stock answer is, "More for me!"

Last night I went to a Pampered Chef party where they made these delicious-looking miniature gooey chocolate cakes. Of course I just had to look and not touch. So today I decided it was time to make chocolate mug cakes, which I did, using potato starch instead of wheat flour. But-what to make for Hubby's Sunday night treat? This recipe came from that and he ADORED it!

Coconut Mug Cakes

4 T flour of choice (I used 3 T potato starch and 1 T coconut flour)(hubby didn't miss the wheat)
4 T sugar
1 egg
3 T milk
3 T cooking oil
1/4 tsp coconut extract
3 T shredded coconut

I don't mix my mug cakes in the mug, I use a small bowl, so stir together flour and sugar in a small bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, except coconut, and mix until just blended with a wire whisk. Stir in coconut.

Brush a bit of oil in 2 8-ounce ramekins and sprinkle with a bit of sugar. Divide batter between the two ramekins. Cook in the microwave approximately 1 minute 45 seconds. You might have to play a bit to get the right time, given the differing wattages of microwaves. Let cool a bit, turn out and serve.

I served this to Hubby with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and some raspberry Italian soda syrup. I kid you not, he went nuts for it! Then he suggested next time I use the Italian coconut syrup that's in the pantry downstairs. Sounds good to me.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

You HAVE to have something pumpkin at this time of year! I developed this recipe for that specific craving.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

3 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 16-oz can pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg or cloves-I prefer cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 C potato starch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a springform pan with waxed paper or parchment. Spray no-stick spray on parchment and up sides of pan.

Beat together all ingredients, pour into pan and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 60 minutes. Let cool a few minutes, then loosen the sides of the pan. Cool a bit more then lay a plate over cheesecake, flip over, pull off parchment, lay a plate over bottom and turn rightside up. Cool completely. The potato starch firms it just enough to flip so you can get rid of the yucky pan bottom.

Enjoy!!

Winter Chicken Soup

A perfect supper when the weather is totally unseasonable for October. (Cold!) I made gluten-free biscuits to go with it and it was very satisfying. I almost didn't miss the noodles.

Winter Chicken Soup

2 large chicken breasts, cubed in 1/2" pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Salt
Pepper
1 tsp Herbs De Provence (I made the Emeril recipe from Food Network but you could use any recipe)
1 tsp celery seed
1 T dried parsley
1 can organic chicken broth (label reading is important with this ingredient)
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 pound sliced carrots
3 large stalks chopped celery
Potato starch
Olive oil
Butter

Season chicken with salt, pepper, herbs, celery seed and parsley. Brown in 1 T olive oil and 1 T butter. Add celery and brown for a few minutes. Add broth, carrots, and additional water to cover; bring to a boil and simmer at least 2 hours until flavors are blended.

Stir 2 T potato starch into a cup of cold water and stir into soup. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture is thickened. Makes about 8 generous servings.

Applesauce Cake With Toffee Sauce

I've been working for a while to perfect a cake recipe. This one turned out pretty good, and was made even tastier by using Stan's homemade applesauce.

Applesauce Cake

1 1/4 C gluten-free flour mix
(I used: 1/2 C Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour mix, 1/2 C potato starch, 1/8 C coconut flour, and 1/8 C potato flour)
1 C Sugar
3/4 Tsp soda
3/4 Tsp salt
1/8 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tsp cloves
1/4 Tsp allspice
1 C applesauce
1/4 C water
1/4 C oil (I use canola oil)
1 egg
Nuts and raisins, if desired or tolerated, 1/2 C each

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together dry ingredients, mix together applesauce, water, oil and egg. Stir into flour mixture. Bake in a 9" greased square pan 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce

Melt one stick (1/2 cup) butter, add 1 cup brown sugar and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 cup cream and simmer 5 minutes until slightly thick. Add 1/4 tsp vanilla. Pour over cake and ice cream.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

About Time I Published the Cheesecake Recipe

My Allergy Free Cheesecake

3 8oz pkgs softened cream cheese
1/2 C potato flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bottom of a springform pan with wax paper or parchment, spray with non-stick cooking spray. Beat cream cheese, add sugar and coconut flour. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Spread in pan and bake for 50 minutes. Let cool a bit, then run a knife around edge to loosen and remove sides of pan. Cool completely. Not too heavy, not too "fluffy."

Raspberry Topping

4 C raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1 C sugar
2-3 T potato starch

Crush half of the berries, mix with sugar and potato starch. Cook over medium heat until quite thick. Let cool for a few minutes, then add the remaining berries. Store in refrigerator.

I made this for a church potluck last week. I didn't tell anyone that it was for "special" diets and it disappeared so fast I almost didn't get a piece!

Blueberry Cobbler-Breakfast of Champions

We couldn't resist the big box of luscious blueberries at our favorite store. I thought we needed to have immediate dessert and I haven't perfected my wheatless pie crust yet, so a cobbler was the logical choice. Of course you could use any berry. If you use tarter berries you might have to bump up how much sugar goes in the filling, but with the blueberries the sweetness is just right.

Blueberry Cobbler

1 Tablespoon potato starch (if you're not allergic to corn, you could use corn starch)
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C water
3 C blueberries or other fruit
1 C flour mixture (I used 1/2 C potato starch, 1/4 C teff flour, and 1/4 C coconut flour)
1/2 C white sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C milk
1/4 C melted butter

Mix first three ingredients, add fruit. Cook and stir until mixture thickens. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Stir dry ingredients together, add milk and butter. Spoon over fruit and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serves 6-8.

We always try to justify eating lovely desserts like this by having them for breakfast. A great way to start the day. It's very good with ice cream if you can do dairy.

No, Don't Tell Me!

The buckwheat pasta I had last night and for lunch-turns out it had wheat in it! I had a reaction, but sometimes I just don't know what makes me cough, and I spent the day checking and rechecking labels. We stopped at the Co-op tonight, I had the bag numbered for the next batch of bulk pasta, and I had the rubber glove ready to start filling my bag, when I decided that I'd better recheck the label on the bin. Not only did it have wheat, but wheat was the first ingredient. What a disappointment! They carry a packaged 100% buckwheat pasta, but it's $6.99 a half-pound. I can't bring myself to pay $14.00 a pound for pasta.

I guess it's back to the kitchen. I've made some tasty things that are "safe" for me, I'll just keep working on pasta.