I would write a book for people with food allergies, complete with specific brand names, recipes, and reviews for real foods--for everyday living. I would also include specific websites and stores where one could obtain such products.

Make them into sauce, and then freeze some in ice cube trays. Throw a few cubes into soups, skillet dishes, thaw out for pizza, whatever. :001_smile:

I was flipping through them on Roku a few months ago and I found this one by Halla Tomasdottir. She talks about realizing that women in the business world are different, not inadequate compared to men. It's very entertaining. Halla was an exchange student at my high school in the mid-80's, and she was an engaging, charismatic, independent person even then.

I'm glad they changed the name...if that thing whispers, I'm a duck! :lol:

Have you tested positive for celiac, or are you allergic? I've posted about my allergies before--long story short, I'm allergic to corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, soy, and mushrooms. I had started reacting to corn, then wheat, then soy and barley. Corn is the worst, so I reacted the most violently to it...other reactions followed when I started cutting stuff out of my diet. I had initially written it off as "well, I must have gotten some corn again." I was told that many people who are allergic to one grain commonly have allergies to others as well. Could it be you are allergic to some of the things you're still eating that you had previously written off as "wheat trouble?" Sometimes reactions take some time to build up...even though you don't feel yourself getting sick, it could be that your body is still reacting in some way.

I put none, because I don't watch any now. I used to watch Ace of Cakes (love Duff and his crew!), and I watched Real World on MTV when it first came out--back when it wasn't all drinking and nasty behavior...and I mean like the first maybe 2 seasons, when I was about that age. I have watched Celebrity Rehab and Celebrity Fit Club in the past, but now those shows have gone the way of every other reality show...not enough reality. I kinda stopped when that show came out about the children living alone on the ranch (and I know there were adults there among the crew, and I know a mom on this board sent her son, and that's okay for her) because I was just so scared for them all the time. Around that time I stopped watching The Biggest Loser because I realized how awful the women were being treated at weigh-in time. They were all wearing tight bike shorts and sports bras, while the men were allowed to wear shorts and t-shirts and actually cover themselves. I guess the more time I spent at college in psychology and communication classes learning about the blatant (accepted) objectification of women, the more reality tv infuriated me.

I typed in http://www.facebook.com/?sk=cf. It returned my page to my old feed. Went over to my mom's and changed hers, and it worked for her too. :001_smile:

I too have Reynaud's and chronic anemia. I went to the doctor several years ago and consulted with him about possible medical interventions. He said that he could give me blood pressure medication that would open up my blood vessels, but since my blood pressure is normal, I might pass out a lot. He did say that I should try to get a little exercise each day, and getting on the treadmill for about 20-30 minutes (about enough time to watch a sitcom episode on Netflix :tongue_smilie:) keeps me warm for several hours. Definitely dress in layers. I purchased a Knifty Knitter and learned how to make legwarmers...PM me with your address and favorite color, and I'll make you a pair! They're wonderful for keeping feet warm around the house, and the kids will applaud you for having the "guts" to go old-school (sigh...the 80's are 'old school'). Also, like Abbeyej, I have started taking vitamin d--I heard some others with Reynaud's here talking about how their symptoms improved, and I've noticed that my flare-ups are fewer and less intense when I stay on it. I've also been wondering whether staying hydrated also helps to stay warm.

At this point I'm happy just going to Walmart and finding a 5-lb bag of rice for what it costs to buy one pound of Bob's Red Mill Rice Flour! :D There's not a whole lot available in Terre Haute as far as orchards, co-ops, etc. I'd bet a pasta maker would be helpful...I've been buying Tinkyada from Amazon, but that gets pricey. I have had a container garden on our 10 by 10 concrete porch for the past 3 summers, and I'm slowly finding out what works well. So far, I've frozen 4 quarts of tomatoes and kept my mother's and my household in fresh tomatoes, and the onions did well--I've chopped and frozen about 2 quart freezer bags of them. Green beans aren't working well at all, but bell peppers look promising. I'm trying a late crop of carrots right now.

Rice is definitely something we eat a lot of around here. When I could still eat wheat, we had a breadmaker...I just figured I couldn't make my own bread once I switched to rice. Maybe it's not as difficult as I think? I do need a decent food processor. Most of the appliances I have are gifts, or the cheapest model for what I needed at the time. What brands work best--and not just the food processor; I mean for everything? Is the Excalibur the best dehydrator to get?

The Tall Bald Guy (hubby) and I were talking this evening, and we were (once again) marveling (and perhaps cursing) over how much money we spend just on food. We worked out a few things tonite that will save us money, like finding out that dh is not the strictly-meat-and-potatoes guy I thought he was, and that he actually likes the idea of just sandwiches or giant salads for dinner. That's going to help out tremendously! We've also been talking about stockpiling foods, bottled water, etc. We have a pretty good idea what we need to start buying extras of, little by little, and I know there are several threads here that will help. The problem we're facing, even if we cut down on meats, is that I have a ton of food allergies. I'm allergic to corn, wheat, rye, barley, soy, oats, and mushrooms. It's a pain come grocery time because while I can spend $1 on a loaf of bread for the guys, I have to pay $4.79 for white rice/flax bread at Kroger, or order it from Silly Yak Bakery for even more...a jar of canola oil mayonnaise is 6 dollars...the list goes on and on. Strangely enough, it's actually cheaper to buy both kinds of pasta, bread, whatever and cook just enough for me while the guys can eat all they want of the stuff I can't. To make a long story short, I told the Tall Bald Guy that I would like to spend a little money at the outset in order to use the four days off I have every week (I'm the weekend therapist on the psych unit of a local hospital) cooking, baking, and dehydrating more. He agrees that if I'm working more, I don't have the time to do these things, and I spend more money on "convenience" foods and dress clothes. What I want to know is, what appliances do you consider essential for your kitchen? Thanks to you guys, I made yogurt in the crockpot last week, and it worked beautifully. I have a Whispermill (what a misnomer that is!), and the lid is broken, but I found the website to buy a replacement. I want an Excalibur dehydrator, and for powdered sugar (without the corn starch) I want to get a coffee grinder. I live in the 'burbs, here in a condo with a fairly large kitchen, given the size of the entire place, but I don't exactly have a lot of counter/cabinet space. What do you think? :bigear:

I like to follow the Toll House Cookie recipe with brown rice flour. I grind my own, and sometimes I have to add a little more than the recipe says, depending on humidity. Rice Chex, Cinnamon Rice Chex, and Kroger's Rice Bitz are gluten free. Bisquik's mix is good, like another poster mentioned, and Betty Crocker makes a good white cake mix that is gluten free. Their chocolate cakes have soy flour, and I think their brownie mix does too, so I haven't tried those because I'm allergic to that too. Tinkyada brown rice pasta is my absolute favorite stuff in the world. I buy it in bulk on Amazon. It can take a little bit of overcooking, but it doesn't freeze well. I also dredge chicken and pork chops in rice flour mixed with spices and fry it up...it's kind of a cross between flour and cornmeal. Namaste makes wonderful white cake, spice cake, and brownie mixes. I know they also make pizza crust mix and bread mixes, but I haven't tried them. The Silly Yak Bakery in Madison, WI will ship anywhere in the US. Their white bread is very good. I use rice flour for many recipes that I used to make with wheat flour. I just have to remember that sometimes I have to go about it differently, like using a hand mixer to introduce bubbles into the batter instead of relying on the gluten like I used to.

This is just a small part of the extra material you can unlock as you explore Pottermore. There's an entire wizarding community in Rowling's mind, and I wish she'd come out with another series...doesn't have to be Potter, just more of her wizarding world. Minerva McGonagall was the first child, and only daughter, of a Scottish Presbyterian minister and a Hogwarts-educated witch. She grew up in the Highlands of Scotland in the early twentieth century, and only gradually became aware that there was something strange, both about her own abilities, and her parents’ marriage. Minerva’s father, the Reverend Robert McGonagall, had become captivated by the high-spirited Isobel Ross, who lived in the same village. Like his neighbours, Robert believed that Isobel attended a select ladies’ boarding school in England. In fact, when Isobel vanished from her home for months at a time, it was to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that she went. Aware that her parents (a witch and wizard) would frown on a connection with the serious young Muggle, Isobel kept their burgeoning relationship a secret. By the time she was eighteen, she had fallen in love with Robert. Unfortunately, she had not found the courage to tell him what she was. The couple eloped, to the fury of both sets of parents. Now estranged from her family, Isobel could not bring herself to mar the bliss of the honeymoon by telling her smitten new husband that she had graduated top of her class in Charms at Hogwarts, nor that she had been Captain of the school Quidditch team. Isobel and Robert moved into a manse (minister’s house) on the outskirts of Caithness, where the beautiful Isobel proved surprisingly adept at making the most of the minister’s tiny salary. The birth of the young couple’s first child, Minerva, proved both a joy and a crisis. Missing her family, and the magical community she had given up for love, Isobel insisted on naming her newborn daughter after her own grandmother, an immensely talented witch. The outlandish name raised eyebrows in the community in which she lived, and the Reverend Robert McGonagall found it difficult to explain his wife’s choice to his parishioners. Furthermore, he was alarmed by his wife’s moodiness. Friends assured him that women were often emotional after the birth of a baby, and that Isobel would soon be herself again. Isobel, however, became more and more withdrawn, often secluding herself with Minerva for days at a time. Isobel later told her daughter that she had displayed small, but unmistakable, signs of magic from her earliest hours. Toys that had been left on upper shelves were found in her cot. The family cat appeared to do her bidding before she could talk. Her father’s bagpipes were occasionally heard to play themselves from distant rooms, a phenomenon that made the infant Minerva chuckle. Isobel was torn between pride and fear. She knew that she must confess the truth to Robert before he witnessed something that would alarm him. At last, in response to Robert’s patient questioning, Isobel burst into tears, retrieved her wand from the locked box under her bed and showed him what she was. Although Minerva was too young to remember that night, its aftermath left her with a bitter understanding of the complications of growing up with magic in a Muggle world. Although Robert McGonagall loved his wife no less upon discovering that she was a witch, he was profoundly shocked by her revelation, and by the fact that she had kept such a secret from him for so long. What was more, he, who prided himself on being an upright and honest man, was now drawn into a life of secrecy that was quite foreign to his nature. Isobel explained, through her sobs, that she (and their daughter) were bound by the International Statute of Secrecy, and that they must conceal the truth about themselves, or face the fury of the Ministry of Magic. Robert also quailed at the thought of how the locals - in the main, an austere, straight-laced and conventional breed - would feel about having a witch as their Minister’s wife. Love endured, but trust had been broken between her parents, and Minerva, a clever and observant child, saw this with sadness. Two more children, both sons, were born to the McGonagalls, and both, in due course, revealed magical ability. Minerva helped her mother explain to Malcolm and Robert Junior that they must not flaunt their magic, and aided her mother in concealing from their father the accidents and embarrassments their magic sometimes caused. Minerva was very close to her Muggle father, whom in temperament she resembled more than her mother. She saw with pain how much he struggled with the family’s strange situation. She sensed, too, how much of a strain it was for her mother to fit in with the all-Muggle village, and how much she missed the freedom of being with her kind, and of exercising her considerable talents. Minerva never forgot how much her mother cried, when the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Minerva’s eleventh birthday; she knew that Isobel was sobbing, not only out of pride, but also out of envy. :crying:

I have a feeling that by November we're going to have to ask SWB to give all us Pottermore moms (Pottermoms?) a separate board! By the way, I love your avatar! I want to be Molly Weasley in my next life.

This site is just too cool...I got on Facebook and found "I'm a Pottermore Beta Tester" and from there found the Hufflepuff Common Room...everyone is posting their usernames and adding each other as friends to Pottermore. I have friends from Singapore, India, Indonesia, Trinidad, Portugal, Canada, United Kingdom...it's wonderful!

Just added you. I'm RoseNox208, Hufflepuff. Any other beta testers out there? Rumor has it that book 2 won't be ready until the first of next year.

It's the online Harry Potter experience...JKR decided to make this website as a "thank you" to the fans of her books and movies. It was announced in late June that it would open in October. Last month there were 1 million spots to become a beta tester. I'm not sure how many are from each country, but I know the site is in 5 languages at this point. You actually go through...storyboards, for lack of a better word-a few of them for each chapter. You pick up things like Chocolate Frog cards, galleons, etc. You even go to Diagon Alley and buy your schoolbooks and wand, potion ingredients, etc. When you arrive at Hogwarts you are sorted into your house, and your achievements in the game earn you house points. If you're sorted into a house other than Gryffindor, you are given an extra approximate 1/2 chapter to read about their house and common room. I've read there are about 18,000 words she has written that didn't make it into the books, that Rowling's added to the site. The site goes far to ensure children's security, by giving you a username instead of letting you make your own and editing comments on the spot to make sure no stray naughty words get past the censors. It's all built for the kids, but there are plenty of adults waiting for their welcome letters! http://www.pottermore.com insider.pottermore.com ETA: the wand described in my heading is the wand that chose me at Ollivander's. You answer questions about yourself and it chooses you. You answer similar questions to be sorted into your house.

Yep, I'm a big ol' geek. I got my welcome letter to beta test Pottermore this evening. It's only the first book, but the backstory about the characters, especially McGonagall and the Dursleys is wonderful! It lags and stutters at times, but it's in beta, and that's expected. I'm waiting until tomorrow night to be sorted, so my son can see some of it.

Cool! My niece dressed as Zelda for AnimeCon in Wichita this year. She spent a long time making this costume, and several people wanted to take her picture!

Wow. Even after 6 pages you're still completely missing the point. What your son did was torture. He may not have known it then, but I hope he knows it now. I'd suggest not talking to the neighbor until you've done some research yourself on BB gun injuries and "mustered up" some REAL remorse.

I like to throw 1/2 to 3/4 cup of salsa and a can of red or black beans in the water, and let the rice cook in it. Add leftover hamburger or turkeyburger if you have it. Plate it, and add your favorite cheese and sour cream or nonfat yogurt on top.:001_smile:

...perhaps if he went door to door asking for "tots." :tongue_smilie:

Great minds think alike! I went on that website a little while ago and started that recipe! I'm trying the skim milk/gelatin version. I'll let you all know how it turns out.:001_smile:

Really? Wonderful! I already own a crockpot. Can you use skim milk, or do you have to use whole? We're a skim family here.

In the interest of saving money and improving our overall health, I am considering buying a yogurt maker; however, I have never made yogurt in my life, save for an experiment in biology class 25 years ago. Which yogurt maker is easy to use and reasonably priced? :bigear: