Telestrations

Pictionary and telephone: what an awesome combination!

I seriously recommend this game. It's easy to learn, easy to play, and your face will be sore the next day from laughter.  

Christmas, Asian Style

Every Sunday my husband and I walk to the local farmer's market and we pass a Chinese food restaurant that smells divine. We spoke recently of how we miss Chinese take out and how we should go buy some take-out containers and make up some of our favorite dishes ourselves. Welp, that's exactly what we did, but since multiple entrees is quite a bit of food for just two, we decided it must be a special occasion, and so instead of ham, we had an Asian Christmas.

Our Menu:

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Kung Pao Pork

Pad Thai with Shrimp 

Fried Rice

Coconut Ice Cream

Asian Cookbook & Rice Noodle Dish

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get unexpected things in the mail from unknown parties. Now... they usually are food-related items, that one is to assume the company would like reviewed here on my blog, or on my podcast.  The Gluten Free Asian Kitchen by Laura B. Russell happens to be one of those fun items. I did not request it, nor was there a note, but as someone who loves to cook I wasn't going to deny the opportunity to try some Asian dishes.

Ice Pop Joy

I'm never been a fan of straight popsicles; even when I'm sick and it would sooth my throat, I have to be really sick to go for a popsicle.  Then I received Ice Pop Joy in the mail unexpectedly and thought maybe making my own popsicles would make a difference.  This fun cookbook has a huge variety of recipes to choose from- straight fruit, yogurt pops, and even ones that incorporate vegetables, which is great for tricking kids into eating them.

New Cookie Cookbook

Luane Kohnke has been baking for more than 20 years. She has a BA in sociology and political science, and yet her love of baking won. Her book has 50 recipes broken down into chapters such as classics, for the kids, bars & squares, meringues, celebrating, and fruit delights.  It was really hard to decide which recipe to make first, but after some evaluation of what I had in the house and given the season I went with her recipe for smore bars.

GF Italian

Jacqueline Mallorca is based out of the bay area, so it only seems appropriate to review a semi-local gluten free author. I looked at the Gluten Free Italian over the Christmas season and almost bought it twice, but I was lucky enough to be sent a free copy for review.  As the cover states the book covers recipes "from crostini to tiramisu". I looked to compare some recipes to what I had in the fridge and ended up making a wonderful meal.

What's Eating your Child

There are 10 fascinating facts about the connection of diet and behavior uncovered in this book. Learn about recurring ear infections, picky eaters, constipation, bumpy skin, poor growth, reflux, moodiness, reduced interest or capacity to learn, behavioral issues, and potentially psychological disorders.  And of these sound like problems with your kids, or maybe kids you care for?  Then you may want to pick up a copy of this book. All of these problems potentially are related to or caused by poor nutrition or a food intolerance/allergy.

Cookbook: Gluten Free Cupcakes

Elana Amsterdam recently released her second cookbook, Gluten-Free Cupcakes.  Her first cookbook, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, had a little bit of everything- great desserts, breakfast items, and some rather tasty entrees, while this new, brightly colored cookbook is 90% sweet, with 10% savory. She focuses on healthier alternative ingredients like almond and coconut flour, agave nectar, grapeseed oil, and coconut oil.  It was hard for me to decide which recipes to try out first, but I finally narrowed it done.

On a Shoestring

Eating Gluten-Free can be expensive, but don't fret, Nicole Hunn, author of Gluten-Free on a Shoestring, has written a cookbook to offer you some tricks, tips, and great recipes for being a gluten free household. The first forty pages or so focuses on the tips and tricks- where to find coupons, including lists of company websites, buying staples in bulk, and how to piggyback your meals.  As someone on a tight grocery budget, I would say I already practice most of what she discusses, for instance, baking chicken on Monday, using leftover chicken for chicken nachos, tacos, or salad throughout the rest of the week. Meal planning and focusing on what is seasonal and what is fresh, plus what is on sale is key, and Nicole can give you quite a few pointers if you are feeling lost.

Blokus

 

This is one of the most awesome games ever!

Strawberry Cake

I had been trying to make this strawberry cake recipe from the Cake Doctor Cookbook for months. Something just kept coming up. Home from the hospital and yearning for a snack I finally made it with some assistance from a fellow baker. I used Pamela's Vanilla Cake mix as my base and went from there.

It was super easy; you just need to have some gelatin and some strawberries in the house. I used my awesome blender to puree my strawberries but a food processor would do. I also decided to put the cake in my favorite square pan, even though the recipe was actually for a 2 layer cake.  I feel like some authors don't test out all the cake pan sizes to see how and how much the cake rises, and I had doubts about it being able to fill two round cake pans.

In the end it did make more batter than I expected, mainly from the extra volume of a cup of strawberry puree, so it made a tall cake, but who cares what shape it's in- cupcake, square, round, it was yummy!

The strawberry cream cheese frosting recipe was phenomenal! I used 6 oz instead of the suggested 4 oz of cream cheese. The only bummer is because of the cream cheese you need to store the cake in the fridge, which tends to try the cake out faster, but that's just my opinion.  

Also, my husband thought some strawberry puree with a little added sugar would be a good center filling with only the frosting on the outside, instead of the frosting in the center and on the outside like the recipe calls for. 

* From the Cake Doctor Bakes Gluten Free page 22

The Cake Doctor

If you need a little extra inspiration on what to bake in your cake pan, besides for basic chocolate or yellow cake with basic frosting, I've got the cookbook for you: The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free by Anne Byrn. There are some great gluten free cake mixes on the market, but despite a few suggestions on their packages, it seems like people still need a little extra push in the right direction to make and bake up gourmet style cakes. Premade gluten free cakes and bakery treats are great, but you can make some pretty impressive things in your very own kitchen,...

You've Been Sentenced!

We are a gaming household. And I don't mean that to say we have every type of gaming console under the sun, like some people I know do... I mean traditional gaming- BOARDGAMES! We have a pretty large selection of games, and 95% of them have all come to us in one of two ways: thrift stores or gifts. For Christmas we got a new one I had actually never seen- You've been Sentenced! and we broke off the plastic wrap and played it a few nights ago.

Now this is one of those games that can get heated if you let it, but just keep an open mind. We decided the sentences didn't have to make complete sense, but they did need to follow basic grammatical rules. Each group will need to make there own declarations before game plan starts, but it's really simple, doesn't take long to learn, and will cause a lot of laughs. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a new group game.

Meet the Author of The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook

What are you doing August 7? SAVE THE DATE! Meet Elana Amsterdam, author of The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook and the popular blog, Elanaspantry.com.

When : August 7th, 12:30 to 3:00 pm

Where: Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall, 317 East 8th Street, Davis, from .

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Come prepared. Pick up one or more copies of Elana’s cookbook to be autographed during the meeting at Gluten Free Specialty (2612 J Street, Sacramento, CA 916-442-5241). Phone orders are welcome. If you can’t make it to the store, you may preorder and prepay over the phone and have the book delivered to you at the meeting. Elana’s flour of choice, pure almond flour from blanched almonds (not almond meal), is also available. With both in hand, be inspired and head home to start cooking.

Experienced celiacs are welcome to bring snacks to share. And if you’re able to pick up the cookbook ahead of time, why not try your hand with one of her recipes, and bring some tasty treats to share. Please bring a copy of your recipe for those with multiple allergies.

For Sacramento Knitters...

I Love Spoons!

Thanks to a close friend I was introduced to a new fun, cheap, and easy game to play: spoons! I never really did the camp thing as a kid, but apparently it was/is a popular camp game. All you need is a regular deck of playing cards, and some spoons.
The object of the game is to collect four cards of one kind and not to be the person left without a spoon. To begin, place the spoons (one fewer than the # of players) in the center of the table within reach of all players. Each player is dealt four cards. The dealer keeps the deck. Then as quickly as you can, the dealer picks a card from the deck, discards one card from his hand, sliding it facedown to the player to his left. That player takes it, then picks one card from his hand and passes it to his left.

Each player in turn does the same rather quickly. Each person should have four cards in his hand at all times. The player to the right of the dealer places discarded cards in a pile to his left to be used by the dealer when the original deck is used up. Play continues until one player has four of a kind, at which time he takes a spoon from the pile. He may steal the spoon, continuing to pass cards until someone else notices. Or he may grab his spoon, creating a mad rush for spoons at the table.

The player left without a spoon has lost the round. If you like to keep score, that player is given an S. As players spell S-P-O-O-N-S, they are out. The player left at the end is the winner. And if you want to make it even more amusing, you can make it into a drinking game, where you have to take a shot each time you're the one without the spoon. And I highly suggest no jewelry, and no glasses on the playing surface.

Have Fun! :-)

*Directions from familyfun.go.com

Let's Play Fluxx!

We're big card game players in my house, and one game that we absolutely love is Fluxx. With chocolate on the brain I couldn't help notice during the last play that the people who created this game also had chocolate on the brain.
This game has rules that continuously change, and you win by having the two items on a goal card. So as shown in the picture, a goal could be chocolate milk, which means you need both the card that shows chocolate on it, and the card that shows milk on it to win. The catch is the goal (how you win) is always changing, as are the other rules...how many cards you draw or play each turn, and more. One of my favorite goals is squishy chocolate, but what makes this game even cooler is you can create your own goals on blank cards the company sells.

Now since I love all that is food-related, I thought up some nifty ones they should add, or you could add on blank cards. And I'm willing to share...for instance what about a goal of Potato Skins; you'd need Potato & Cheese to win. Or what about Hot Potato- potato & sun to win.

Anyhow, I own version 3.1 and now they're on to version 4.0. Plus it comes in various editions, such as a family themed one, an eco-friendly themed edition, and others. I think I need to invest in some more blank fluxx cards and the martian edition. Truly, check this game and their others out at Looneylabs.com.

Super Mario Brothers Wii!

Thanks to a gift card given to us at Christmas time, we decided to use the free money for a new game. We have a pretty big selection of boardgames and card games, and we had a few Nintendo wii games, so we weren't quite sure what kind of game we wanted to buy, but in the end we bought Super Mario Brothers Wii.

When I was young I had Super Nintendo system, and remember playing Mario Brothers...I hated the one castle with all the skeleton creatures. Anyhow, this game brings me back to my childhood. I can see why it was voted one of the top 10 games of 2009.

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I was thinking that this game would work similar to Mario Kart, in which each player gets a piece of the screen and races with or against others to complete a level. However, Mario Brothers Wii is interesting when you're playing in multiple player mode. All of your characters play together, so you really need to work as a team to complete every level. I love the levels with Yoshi; he's a favorite character, and it just happens that I also choose Yoshi as my character for Mario Kart.

Games are cool, and video games are fun, but it aggravates me to all hell when people get "addicted" to video games, and spend all their free time staring at a screen. Their is more to life: you know, like fresh air, but hey, games can be a nice, fun, and social activity, especially when it's rainy outside.

Free Book Exchange Program

This past weekend I finally got a chance to go to the Bay Area's Free Book Exchange in El Cerrito, CA. They're only open on the weekends, so I had been trying to find time to fit the trip into my schedule since ate July when I found out about them. In a small green and white building, in a somewhat seedy neighborhood, you'll find free books at your fingertips. They encourage you to bring in your used books, to keep the program working obviously, and then they allow you to take up to 50 books for free.

Sure I have my favorite used book stores, but the concept of this place is great, because I don't have to be absolutely sold on the book, worried about being disappointed and out money, and unlike a library I don't need to worry about returning it by a certain date. They have them mostly sorted by genre: history, fiction, romance novels, children's books, travel, cookbooks, etc., and then from there you get to dig through and browse. I picked up 4 fiction novels that sounded fun and interesting, even though I already have about 5 on my nightstand that I haven't gotten to yet, and one massive cookbook. There were a couple others that caught my eye, like a very old story and 2 cookbooks in authentic German, but I left those for someone who might actually be able to read them. I guess I love a good hunt and adventure. So, if you've got a stack of old books lying around, I encourage you to donate them to the free book exchange, and check out what they have to offer; you never know what you're going to find.

Digg This: General Mills & their GF Product Line

I was reading through some articles today and stumbled upon an article that anyone in the food industry or on a gluten free diet should be able to read. General Mills was featured in the Wall Street Journal recently, but since it is a paid site you need a subscription to view the full article. The article discusses how much cheaper it has been to market their new gluten free products, simply because the gluten free community talks and talks loudly about their likes or dislikes of certain gluten free products. It can become a huge game of telephone. General Mills went through at least 75 different experimental formulas before they came up with the flour blend they settled on for their new Betty Crocker Baking Mixes. General Mills plans to release dozens of more products next year, some of which will be gluten free. I wonder what they will be. A gluten free angel food cake mix, or perhaps any entire line of gluten free soups would be nice.

I have submitted this article to Digg, which, because of a special agreement between WSJ and Digg, means you can read the article in full--but only if you're a Digg user. So please, sign up for an account if you don't already have one, digg the story, and spread the word.

For the uninitiated: Digg is a user-submitted social news site, and Diggnation is a weekly video show recapping some of the top stories chosen by Digg founder Kevin Rose, and his good friend Alex Albrecht. Basically, they drink beer while nestled on a couch in their home as they joke around and review the weekly stories. My husband got me hooked on it, and I'm thankful, because they're entertaining yet informative for anyone slightly interested in tech-related news.