We McClellans are on the road to a gluten limited existence. There are numerous reasons behind the choice, we are ten days into the lifestyle, and so far, zero complaints have been noted…then again, it’s tough to complain when homemade corn tortillas appear on the table most nights.
Less than two weeks into my position as captain of a kitchen devoid of glutinous grains (except beers in the back corner of the fridge for emergencies), I have already unearthed a very important piece of information that everyone, g-free or not, should know.
JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS GLUTEN FREE DOES NOT MEAN IT’S GOOD FOR YOU.
Case in point: Good Karma Rice Divine
It’s an ice cream. No, a rice cream. Oh, no, not really, there’s no cream. Just rice, and sugar, and “sunflower or canola or safflower” oil, and soy protein concentrate, and…what’s this? Guar gum. And xanthan gum?
Guar gum is a filler. It makes one feel satiated. It makes food taste “better.” Supposedly it lowers cholesterol. But it’s also an excitotoxin.
Basically what this means is that in small and limited amounts, they are no big deal…like all the other toxins we know about. A healthy body will find a way to eliminate them. But if you buy cartons of rice-ish ‘dessert’ every week, or if you are stocking your kitchen with gluten free bread bound with xanthan gum instead of good old-fashioned wheat gluten, you could be headed for some serious trouble over the long term. Research has shown that consumption of excitotoxic substances like guar and xanthan gums leads to the permanent death of specific receptors in the brain…receptors which are so important to our functioning that, once a certain percentage are gone, we are primed to develop devastating neurological diseases like ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Check out this website for the eye-opening details.
Did I mention that Good Karma Rice Divine faux cream tastes pretty awful? Kind of like wet, syrupy cardboard. FAIL. It makes Haagen-Dazs Five (five ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and the subject flavor…green tea, or strawberry, or chocolate, or honey, etc.) taste like five million bucks. For less money. And it’s gluten free too. Not lactose free, of course, but I have yet to find a non-dairy dessert on the market that doesn’t contain mystery ingredients.
I’m reading food labels with new knowledge and resisting items containing foreign substances. I have been reminded of an incredibly important lesson these past two weeks: eating food as close as possible to its natural state will keep us as close as possible to ours…healthy, happy, and free of disease.
I have poison oak from a recent camping trip in Los Padres National Forest. It sucks. My bug bites had almost stopped itching when out of nowhere appeared the first bumps of the oak reaction, and now it’s all over my right leg. It’s totally unsightly too. Grrrrrrr…
Since store-bought anti-itch preparations don’t work that well and I’m a natural remedy type anyway, I went into my stash of essential oils. Tea tree was my first choice since it’s touted as a great fix for skin problems. I love tea tree oil and had high hopes for it, but for my poison oak it didn’t really do anything and I smelled like medicine afterwards.
My next pick was the winner: peppermint oil. Pure, clean, simple peppermint oil. Straight on with a cotton ball, and three minutes later the burning itch was calmed and cooled. No scratching necessary! No pestering hot sensation! Perfect. I just walk around with a refreshing Peppermint Patty-esque aroma afterwards, but it’s better than the alternative. And the chemical-free relief lasts for about an hour.
Most experts advise diluting essential oils with a carrier such as grapeseed or jojoba, and that recommendation is good for general use. For poison oak itch, however, neat is best. And to all of you east coasters, I imagine peppermint oil would be effective for poison ivy as well.
Today I ate a salad for lunch. It was so not a boring everyday salad. It was extra tasty and quite different from any other salad I’ve ever had, so I decided to share. The components were as follows: organic romaine lettuce, sliced roasted red beets, seared ahi tuna, pine nuts for crunch, and a perfectly spicy/sweet dressing. Sounds simple enough, but the dressing was the kicker. The onion is what made the whole thing sing. Here’s what to use and how to do it:
three cups of torn, washed romaine
a 6-ounce tuna steak, sushi grade if possible
about a cup of cooked, sliced beets
a small handful of pine nuts
one little garlic clove, peeled
one perfect red spring onion
a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
rice vinegar
ponzu
hot pepper sesame oil
First, get the larger items prepped and ready. Break out your cast iron skillet and get it hot. Season and oil your tuna steak and slip it into the pan, adjusting the heat so there’s minimal smoking. Usually one to two minutes on each side does the trick for a nice sushi-grade piece of fish, depending of course on how rare you like it. Remove the seared tuna to a plate. Get your lettuce, beets, and pine nuts into a large bowl, then proceed with the dressing.
Using a Microplane grater or a rasp, grate the garlic clove into a small bowl. Peel away the outermost layer of your perfect red spring onion and discard. Cut off the withered green tips and discard those as well. Thinly slice the green stalk and deposit into the bowl with the lettuce and beets. Then halve the onion lengthwise, cutting through the tail to make two mirrored pieces. Thinly slice these two halves into dozen of onion shards, place into a bowl separate from the garlic, and hit with your fresh lemon juice. Using your fingers, bash and squeeze the onion pieces in the lemon juice. This breaks them down very effectively, taking away that raw bite and leaving just a hint of spring onioniness. Place the onion into the bowl with the garlic. Add a splash of rice vinegar, a splash of ponzu (soy sauce would work too, just use a wee bit), and a sprinkling of hot pepper sesame oil to taste. You could substitute plain sesame oil and sriracha if the flavored oil is hard to come by.
Taste the dressing to make sure you like it, pour it into the veggie bowl, and toss. Plate the salad, artfully placing the beet slices throughout, and flake the tuna on top.
It’s delicious like this, but if you have fresh ginger on hand, grate some of that into your perfect onion dressing. I imagine fresh mint or basil leaves would also be a welcome addition. Bon appetit.
Nestled in the Umbrian landscape of southern Toscana, Italia, is one of the most wonderful places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. It’s an agriturismo called Podere Peciano, and it’s just a few kilometers from the medieval Tuscan hill town of Cortona. Michael and I spent three nights there during our luna di miele, and it was literally a dream come true.
Agriturismi are basically rural farm stays. Many small scale farms throughout Italy allow visitors to spend holidays on the working properties, thereby supplementing the farm’s income and keeping local tradition alive and kicking. They run the gamut of price and accommodations, so finding one suitable to most any discerning traveler’s needs is not a difficult task. In terms of charm, agriturismi are tough to top. And while planning our mid-honeymoon driving tour of Tuscany, I found a hidden gem in Podere Peciano.
M and I wanted to camp out at a low-tourist destination, so popular towns like Siena and San Gimignano were out of consideration, at least for our longer term stay. I hit upon Cortona over the course of my internet research and was quickly sold on its relatively small size and purported beauty and tranquility. Once decided on Cortona, I clicked on to discover the various agriturismi nearby, and found Podere Peciano.
When we finally pulled into the driveway several months later, it was love at first sight.
The farm is home to cows (bred for either milk or beef), chickens, ducks, goats (one quite pregnant during our stay), a stunningly gorgeous and very friendly pony named Gisela, rabbits, and pigs. There are orchards of fig trees, row upon row of white and purple grapes for wine, and the most bountiful vegetable garden I’ve ever seen with my own eyes.
Stellina (Little Star) stayed with us in our apartment each night. Here she is on our balcony, waiting for some milk.
The family living on and running the farm are incredibly warm people, and even through the language barrier we felt the love. Dina, the matriarch, took us on multiple tours of the property, made recommendations for sightseeing, and brought us fresh milk, eggs, and cakes every morning. And on one particularly memorable night, Michael and I were invited for Prosecco and snacks with Luigi, the proprietor, and his wife Natasha. They were newlywed too. Luigi is a native of Cortona, but met his new wife in Cuba. The four of us had a hilarious and heartfelt time switching back and forth between Italian, Spanish, and English in our communication…sometimes all three in one sentence. Aren’t those the moments we live for?
If you are planning a trip to Tuscany anytime in the future, look into Cortona and Podere Peciano. They are just too heavenly to keep to myself (though I was tempted!). When our family has little McClellans running around, we’re going back to enjoy this amazing tesoro.
Second only to a properly mixed cocktail, a girl’s best friend in the kitchen is a quality chef’s knife. For years I have been slicing and dicing with a fairly decent 8-inch Wolfgang Puck that I got secondhand for free. When it’s nice and sharp it works just fine, and over the years I have grown accustomed to the weight in my hand and the traditional functionality. It looks and feels almost exactly like a Wüsthof, but lacks the lofty name and price tag. Overall, my Puck was a great beginner’s knife. It will always fill an honored slot in my (growing) knife block.
But a 2011 birthday-related upgrade was apparently in order. Enter a 10-inch MAC knife. One of the best names in cutlery. These are the knives used by culinary superheroes such as Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter, Eric Ripert, and now, yours truly. Best thing is, my new Japan-made knife cost less than the equivalent styles from more public, popular brands. So now I am a chopping machine with smart shopping sense to boot.
Look out, onions, I will julienne you so fine you will collapse in wafer-thin ribbons on my Boos block. Beware, carrots, I will brunoise you into near-microscopic cubes. And basil, my MAC will chiffonade you with such precision, you won’t even have a chance to bruise.
