Wine Plus No Bakes Equals...

Thank you to all who entered my first giveaway, I've emailed the winners and look forward to doing another giveaway soon.
Over the years I've learned that wine and cooking go along well together. A good cook can overcome any obstacle that the wine may bring forth.... even if messing up simple math and doubling the butter on a simple No Bake Cookie Recipe.

Simple Recipe + Wine= Double the Earth Balance Butter then a double batch

No Bake Cookies (single batch)

1 3/4 cups white sugar

1/2 cup milk (soy for me)

1/2 cup butter (earth's balance) *note ONE stick is 1/2 cup not two sticks! 

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Bring the above to a gentle boil on the stove top. Let boil for 30-60 seconds to let sugar really dissolve.

Turn off heat then add:

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup coconut flakes (optional but delish)

3 cups gluten free oats

1 teaspoon gf vanilla extract

Spoon onto parchment or wax paper in even piles to the size of your liking.

Mini M&M's make for a colorful add in

Store in the fridge for a longer shelf life

The cookies seemed to go on forever....

Thankfully my No Bake Cookies have a good reputation and I had no problem pawning them off on others to enjoy as well. I'm lucky and seem to do fine with GF Oats. I keep at least a bag of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats on hand at all times for snacks like this.

I'm drinking more organic wine these days as I think I have a problem with sulfites (but really I have no idea) and these tend to not bother me. Our Daily Red has been a go-to but I'm also enjoying Orleans Hill Cabernet Sauvignon as it's smoother.

And I'm also lucky that both my pups are very forgiving with my no-bake "disasters"

Sigg Bottle and Travel Mug Giveaway

Before ski season hit I had a weekend to myself, Dave had flown back east for a friend's wedding and I celebrated my freedom and worked on my spinach and noodles, carrot and squash soup and crepes which I posted about. I also spent some time working in photoshop working on some simple designs to show off my glutardness. I created some basic designs and opened a Cafepress online store and forgot about it.
About a month ago I checked into the store and found that some of my goods were selling and was pretty proud as I thought about people carrying around the Sigg I designed or the Ceramic Travel Mug. I put an order in for myself but also wanted to share these creations with you so I ordered an extra of each.
When I traveled to Kula's Cafe in Dillon I was able to break out my Sigg and show off my design,  the white Sigg also look dashing next to my breakfast of homemade gluten free french toast dusted with powdered sugar.

I didn't use my travel mug at breakfast as it was a bit to warm for some hot chocolate or tea. I did get this shot of the Sigg and Ceramic Travel Mug together. Both are great products and the Sigg is BPA free (it is Earth Day after all) and the mug worked well on it's inaugural hot chocolate made with soymilk.

From think outside the breadbox

Post a comment to be entered to win just tell me about why your happy to be gluten free (or if you're not then how you support your glutarded friends). Follow me on Twitter and tweet this or link to your blog and I'll throw in a bonus entry for you if you let me know about it via blog comment or @katerideout. The contest will close on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at midnight mountain time and there will be one winner for a Sigg Bottle and one winner for the Ceramic Travel Mug. Be sure to put a twitter name or email in your comment so I can contact you if you've won!

glutard travels in ski country

We took an extended weekend and traveled to Summit County, CO this weekend. We loaded the dogs in the 4Runner and weaved our way through the mountains. Lunch on the road was easy as we were going near City Market, I picked out some fresh cut fruit and other snacks for the trip. Dinner was more of a challenge.

 We met a friend in Vail and I broke some rules. First, I forgot to eat my snacks and was starving. Second, I didn't research as I thought I could handle being my own advocate. (don't do this on an empty stomach...) Third, I didn't send back unsafe food.  I had ordered a burger without the bun and explained that I could not have gluten to let the server know it was a medical issue and not the Adkin's diet. When my cheeseburger arrived and after the server left I noticed crumbs stuck on the cheese and on the plate. I was starved and scraped the cheese off. I had a few bites of salad and considered my options.

This was Thursday and we were going to be on the road until Monday. I didn't want to go to our friends house in the throws of a gluten meltdown. I picked at the poor excuse for a salad (wilted lettuce) and left the burger alone. When the server came back we let her know that crumbs had been spotted and that it was unsafe to eat. She took it off the bill but by that time I wasn't hungry anymore.  Lesson accepted and I won't return to Bart & Yeti's again.

The next day was off to a much better start. I had planned ahead for our ski day and loaded my pockets with Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, Lara Bar and Enjoy Life Boom Choco Boom Chocolate Bars. Plus we hit Kula's Cafe in Dillon for a gluten-free breakfast of french toast to fuel me up. We proceeded to hit Kula's before skiing on Saturday and Sunday as well.

They had a great assortment of GF goodies for me to choose from, Sugar cookies and carmel bars with a rich chocolate layer! She had also made some GF banana bread and cobbers which I didn't have a chance to try at all. She makes her own GF bread and it made great toast and french toast.

The sugar cookies were leftover from Easter but on sale and still really tasty!

I also hit the Natural Grocer and grabbed some Boulder Chips and my new favorite pasta, Ancient Harvest to make for dinner. Overall it was a great trip and good to finally get out of town, ski some other mountains and catch up with friends and family.

Did you happen to notice my new Sigg Bottle... stay tuned for a chance to win your own!

Did you do the FDA study yet?

The FDA is doing a study about glutards. It took me under 10 minutes to do on my droid a few nights ago.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking adults diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten-intolerance or caregivers to such individuals to participate in a research study on their grocery shopping habits. Participants will be asked to take an Internet survey, which will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. The survey is available at www.synovate.net/forgluten

Kula's Cafe

We're on a small road trip with our puppy monsters, visiting friends and skiing in Summit county. It was hard to leave telluride this past winter as we both had crazy work obligations. Now that the mountain has closed for the season we are able to take some time away and venture out of the box canyon.
On our last trip to Summit last September we visited Kula's Cafe after our friend saw their ad which mentioned their gluten free options in the local paper. I raved about it then and my memory served me well. It was a great safe breakfast to start a big ski day at Copper with.
Doesn't the french toast look delish? And check out my new sigg bottle.... stay tuned for details on how to win one just like this!  I'm actually pretty excited for my first ever blog giveaway!

off season?

Life in a ski town is funny. The year has a different flow and feel to it. Telluride is no exception to this and right now we're in an off season phase. Winter has ended and the ski resort has commenced operations for the season. Mother Nature didn't get the memo and it's been colder this week and we've had more snow. School has let out for two weeks and the entire pace of town has slowed dramatically... except at work. We've been busy tying things up and getting ready for summer. Most ski towns have slow summers.... here we have a festival almost every weekend starting with Mountainfilm on Memorial Day.
I made a huge batch of gluten-free Tollhouse Cookies last weekend to help celebrate the end of ski season and just subbed GF Artisan flour and 1 teaspoon xanthum gum for wheat flour.

They were great but it's the second time I've made them and they tend to spread quite a bit.

They're already gone and now I need to come up with a few other snack ideas for our upcoming trip out of town. We're taking Chaos and Mayhem to Summit County so that Mayhem can meet their human cousins and their good doggie friends. We're looking forward to a bit of time away. Our last trip was a 23 hour whirwind in a snowstorm. I'm hoping for some sunny skies this time around!