Ener G Wheat Free Pizza Shells

Ingredients

Filtered Water, Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, High Oleic Safflower Oil, Pear Juice Concentrate, Bamboo Fiber, Yeast, Methylcellulose, Guar Gum, Orange Citrus Fiber, Salt, Calcium Phosphate, Glucono Delta Lactone, Enriched with Thiamine (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Niacin, Iron and Folic Acid.

Free of
gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, egg, soy, nut, corn, low protein



Topped with Italian herbs (oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme and rosemary), all-beef meatballs, strained tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms.

Ratings are relative, right? If we say, "This pizza dough is excellent" we have to include what it is being compared to for the rating to have value. "This pizza dough is excellent compared to putting sauce and toppings on a 10" cardboard cutout" differs from "this pizza dough is excellent. It is almost as good as the artisan pizza we had in Milan." When rating various pizza dough products it is important to keep in mind that there is a difference between rating traditional products and products intended to substitute for products people cannot eat.

Ener-G pizza shells, compared with the many wheat-free, gluten-free pizza doughs and shells we have tried was very good. The folks at Ener-G are using a combination of the ingredients listed above in a number of their wheat-free, gluten-free products and our testing/tasting so far has yielded favorable results.

The good news is that these pizza shells work. The texture is good. The objectionable flavors often found in wheat-free baked goods are missing.

The bad news is that you get two 10" pizza shells for about $15 and the shells are packaged together, so unless you are going to cook two pizzas tonight or pizza is on the menu for two meals fairly close together, $7 is a lot for a pizza shell and $15; ouch.

Brach's response

We emailed Brach's candies about their labeling. Our concern is that people with food allergies may tend, as we do, to read the Allergen Warning at the bottom of the ingredients list first. The allergen warning does not mention that there are allergens actually in the product. The labeling law says that they don't have to and they don't.

Here is the response from the manufacturers of Brach's:

Thank you for writing Farley's & Sathers Candy Company, Inc. regarding Brach's® California Raisins Choc Covered Raisins. Hearing from our consumers better enables us to continue to provide quality products and services. Consumer feedback is very important to us, and we appreciate the opportunity to respond.

Farley's & Sathers Candy Company, Inc. takes allergen issues seriously. Packages must be labeled appropriately for potential allergens. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines suggest labeling for at least the “Big 8” allergies.

Current labeling for product manufactured and/or packaged on lines with other products containing any of the “Big 8” will contain an allergen statement. Allergens listed explicitly in the ingredients may not be listed dually in the allergen statement.

Farley's & Sathers Candy Company maintains several manufacturing and packaging facilities. While some of these facilities are nut free or free from all of the "Big 8" allergens, others are not. In addition, processes may change from time to time. Please consult the package label or contact us for additional allergen information on the product you purchased. Please refer to the packaging, as the packaging contains the most current ingredient and allergen statements. Packaging is updated anytime a change is made to the production location of any item.

Due to constant changes in manufacturing and packaging, Farley's & Sathers is not able to offer a list of allergen affected items.

Thank you for contacting Farley's & Sathers Candy Company with your request for information on our allergens. Please contact us directly at 1-888-247-9855 (Consumer Affairs) with any additional questions or concerns about allergens and our products.

Please visit our website at www.farleysandsathers.com for additional information about our products and services.

Sincerely,

Suzie Webb
Consumer Relations
--------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your response Suzie. Your lengthy response that says nothing more than that Brach's meet the minimum requirements of the law and read the whole label which complies with the law.

Oh yeah, and thank you for the reading list.

Suzie, I didn't write you to complain about compliance with the law. I wrote to let you know that your labeling is not helpful to people with food allergies.

Thanks for the form letter, and I guess you know by now just how helpful you have been

BrookeOK Baked Beans

This dish has been a summer favorite for years. This recipe makes a good sized batch; enough for a party or enough to ensure lots of leftovers for the refrigerator. Heat leftover beans in a saucepan with a little water or chicken stock.

Ingredients

2 Qt chicken stock
1 pound bacon, diced
1 large Vidalia onion, diced
1 T fresh garlic, minced
1 pound dried navy beans, soaked overnight and drained
1/2 cup sugar syrup
1/2 cup light brown sugar
18 oz strained tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste
1/3 cup yellow mustard
kosher salt
2-3 bay leaves



Good ole' Oscar Mayer Bacon, diced, goes into a large pot to start this recipe. I like to dice the bacon with a cleaver on a plastic cutting board which goes right into the dishwasher afterward. Render the bacon stirring frequently until crispy. Add the diced onion and season. Add the beans and garlic and stir for a minute or two. Add remaining ingredients except the chicken stock and bay leaves and mix well.
Add 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock and bay leaves. Bring to a low boil and lower heat to simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour stirring occasionally and adding remaining chicken stock as needed. Beans should be covered with liquid throughout cooking. Add more chicken stock or water if necessary until the beans are tender, but firm. Remove bay leaves and serve.





Don't forget to check those beans for pebbles, bad beans, etc., before they go into the pot. I have picked all sorts of stuff out of the dried beans.





Don't forget to take out the bay leaves. Bay leaves add wonderful flavor but they are not edible.







Grilled chicken cutlets served with rice and BrookeOK Baked Beans. A small bowl of liquid from the beans made a nice glaze for the chicken on the grill.

M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh



Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) report.

Food Allergy Knowledge Found Lacking in General Public

Thank you Allergic Girl!

Bounty is better.

"Oh thank goodness!" my wife exclaimed after tearing off a fresh sheet of Bounty® paper towel. The cheap stuff was finally gone.



I am not a frequent user of grocery store coupons. It seems to me that if you have to buy more than you want of something, you really are not saving money and the coupons all seem to require that you buy more than you want. The coupons are always for the competing brands of products we prefer. I understand that the store tracks our purchasing habits and markets the coupon program as marketing departments do. "We will print a coupon for your product to customers who buy your competitors product." I get it, I just don't want to play. As I said, I am not a frequent user of grocery store coupons.

A $4 coupon for paper towels caught my eye at the self check out register a couple of weeks ago and demonstrated that my coupon policy was not firm enough.

Quick math: 8 rolls of paper towel, any paper towel, costs about $12. That is $1.50 per roll. With a $4 coupon $1 per roll. Fully 1/3 off of the usual cost. Couldn't resist. Should have resisted.

Long math: Replace 8 rolls of $1.50 per roll paper towel with 8 rolls of wax paper or parchment paper or tissue paper for $1 per roll and you saved 50 cents per roll and you do not have paper towels.



Maybe they could use this stuff to print grocery store coupons.

Sate (Satay) Chicken

Google "Everything tastes better on a stick" and you will get nearly 19 million hits. There must be something to it.

To make Sate Chicken:

Strip the tendon out of chicken tenderloins and place chicken on skewers. Sprinkle with a mixture of salt, brown sugar, garlic, onion, coriander, shallots, ginger, turmeric, sweet paprika, Ancho pepper, galangal, cayenne red pepper and lemongrass or Penzey's Sate Seasoning.

Broil or grill until chicken reaches 165 degrees F.

Always Read Labels. Really.

You're picking up some items at the grocery store, just a few, and you are meeting with a contractor at your home in fifteen minutes. You have had requests for healthy snacks from your family...and chocolate. Healthy chocolate, OK?

We know from labeling standards that ALLERGEN INFORMATION is directly below the sometimes lengthy ingredients list. We can look there and quickly determine if an item is high risk or low risk. If one of the more common allergens is contained in the item, we will see it listed here. Right?



The allergen information for these California Raisins, which the label describes as Milk Chocolate Covered Raisins, reads as follows:

ALLERGEN INFORMATION: MADE IN A FACILITY THAT PROCESSES PEANUTS, TREE NUTS, SUNFLOWER SEEDS, MILK, SOY AND WHEAT.

Usually the ALLERGEN INFORMATION is followed by a "CONTAINS:" and with Milk Chocolate Covered Raisins, the CONTAINS:MILK is notably missing on this Brach's product.

Note: Made in a facility is not the same as made on shared equipment is not the same as may contain traces is not the same as CONTAINS.

Read the ALLERGEN INFORMATION first. If it says,"CONTAINS: MILK, PEANUTS", and you are allergic to milk and/or peanuts, you don't have to read any further.

If you don't rule out an item based on a listed ingredient in the ALLERGEN INFORMATION, you still have to read the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS: Milk Chocolate(Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Milk, Lactose, Butter Fat, Soy Lecithin added as an emulsifier, Salt, with Vanilla and Ethyl Vanillin, Artificial Flavors, Ground Peanuts), Raisins, Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Maltodextrin, Confectioner's Glaze.

If you are allergic to milk, soy, or peanuts, you may or may not be concerned about what the facility processes, but if the product CONTAINS allergens, you want to know.




The allergen information at the bottom of the ingredients list is a good place to start, but remember that you read the ALLERGEN INFORMATION to rule an item out efficiently. That alone does not qualify an item as safe. You still have to read the ingredients before you decide if an item is allergen-free.

FDA recall emailer

Click here to go to the sign up page for automatic emails from the FDA regarding recalls of foods and drugs.

Ice creams are one of the most frequently recalled food items, usually due to undeclared ingredients.

Buy local - truly local

There are at least ten grocery stores within a 15 mile radius of home, but that is not the good part.

There are two Shaw's, two Hannaford's, one Sudbury Farm's; there is one Stop&Shop, one Idlewilde Farm's, two Whole Foods, and two Trader Joe's all within 1/2 an hour.

They all have blueberries and they all have scallions. They all have garlic, well, they call it garlic... They all have tomatoes and parsley and basil. They all have lettuce and they have honey. Sort of.



Look at these monster scallions! And the blueberries!!! Small Farm in Stow, Massachusetts grows in accordance with "organic" farming protocol. They are not certified "organic" but that's because they don't want to charge their customers for a label proclaiming what they have been able to see for themselves at the farm for the past 20+ years.

These tomatoes have so much more flavor than artificially ripened supermarket tomatoes. The garlic is usually dried in the greenhouse before sale so it will keep. Dwight was kind enough to let me take some of the fresh. I don't want it to keep. I am going to use the magic ingredient right away. I'll get some more to keep tomorrow.

The honey is raw...and in a honey mustard salad dressing...it, too, is magic.

Small Farm Farmer: Dwight Sipler

ServSafe ®

Regulatory requirements vary from state to state, but in general, every foodservice facility is required to have at least one Certified ServSafe Food Protection Manager.

The course consists of approximately six hours of instruction and a two-hour test. The course I took was divided into two sessions, which gave students time to read the course book in preparation for the exam.

Course Content (course content varies)
Providing Safe Food
The Dangers and Prevention of Foodborne Illness
Preventing Foodborne Illness
How Food Becomes Unsafe
The Food Safety Responsibilities of a Manager
The Microworld
Microbial Contaminants
Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
Fungi
Contamination, Food Allergens, and Foodborne Illness
Types of Foodborne Contamination
Deliberate Contamination of Food
Food Allergens
The Safe Foodhandler
How Foodhandlers Can Contaminate Food
Components of a Good Personal Hygiene Program
Management's Role in a Personal Hygiene Program
The Flow of Food: An Introduction
Preventing Cross-Contamination
Time and Temperature Control
Monitoring Time and Temperature
The Flow of Food: Purchasing and Receiving
General Principles
Inspecting Food
The Flow of Food: Storage
General Storage Guidelines
Types of Storage
The Flow of Food: Preparation
Handling Food
Thawing Food Properly
Preparing Specific Food
Cooking Guidelines
Cooking Temperatures
Cooling Food
Reheating Food
The Flow of Food: Service
Holding Food
Serving Food Safely
Types of Foodservice Operations
Food Safety Systems
Food Safety Programs
Active Managerial Control
HACCP
Crisis Management
Sanitary Facilities and Pest Management
Facilities and Equipment
Cleaning and Sanitizing
Integrated Pest Management
Food Safety Regulation and Standards
Government Regulatory System for Food
The Food Code
Foodservice Inspection Process


Although there are sections intended to address industry issues such as temperature control in walk-in refrigerators, the vast majority of the information is relevant to anyone who cooks, or eats, and especially relevant to anyone who eats in restaurants.

Food allergens are discussed and posters are included in the course material that identifies the major food allergens. A short video was shown in my class that suggested servers go to the Person In Charge at a dining facility when a customer identifies themselves as having food allergies. The Person In Charge should ensure that cooking surfaces and utensils are cleaned and sanitized to prevent cross-contamination and must have a thorough knowledge of ingredients used. Suggesting simple uncomplicated menu items may be of interest to patrons with food allergies.

While the class did spend time on common food allergens and discussed cross-contamination prevention, the primary message to the server in the front of the house and the cook in the kitchen was to refer to the person in charge (PIC) for direction.

Has the person in charge had sufficient training?

BrookeOK can help.

Allergy friendly BBQ sauce.

If you are managing food allergies, and particularly if you are managing multiple food allergies, you know that the longer the ingredients list on the label - the less likely you are able to serve the item.

Barbecue Sauce for example: There is a New England based company that makes a very tasty Honey Barbecue Sauce with a lengthy ingredients list that includes some of the allergens we see at BrookeOK and "natural flavors." What, exactly, is natural flavors? Also on the list is "white wine." Many white wines contain sulfites. We don't know based on this label. We do know if we make it ourselves.

Another advantage is that we might make just enough BBQ sauce for dinner. No refrigerator space taken up storing sauce we might not use again until it has expired. The popular sauce with lots of ingredients is available in 11 oz. bottles for $5.99. That is almost $70 per gallon.

You might be able to make you own in a few minutes with ingredients you already have on hand for a fraction of the cost and nothing left taking up space in the 'fridge or going down the drain.



BBQ Sauce:

Sugar, honey, ketchup or tomato paste and water, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, shallot salt(Penzey's) or minced shallots and salt, lime juice, turmeric, onion powder, cayenne pepper.

You don't need exact measures do you?



Take one Bell and Evans Chicken. Using a poultry sheers, remove the spine and flatten the chicken. Indirect heat on the grill for about an hour should bring you to the safe internal temperature (kills salmonella) of 165 degrees. Basting regularly with your homemade BBQ sauce makes for one moist and tasty chicken.




Coat asparagus in EVOO and sprinkle some kosher salt. Add asparagus to the grill once the chicken has reached 165 degrees. Five minutes or so with frequent turning over hot coals and it is dinner time.

WARNING: Once you have had grilled asparagus, you might never like steamed again.

M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,Sh



Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Shellfish-free

Happy 233rd Independence Day!

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour (King Arthur)
2 cups pure cane sugar (Florida Crystals)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (Morton Coarse Kosher Salt)
2 teaspoons baking soda (Arm & Hammer pure Baking Soda)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s Cocoa)
3/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract)
2 cups cold water
Preparation:
1 Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan or mixing bowl.
Add oil, vinegar and vanilla and pour cold water over all and mix well. A hand-mixer works well to
ensure smooth consistency. Pour into cake pan or cupcake baking cups.
2 Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cooking times
shorten considerably if you are making cupcakes or smaller cake loaves.
Note: This cake freezes well.

M,E,P,S,N,Se,Sh

Contains: Wheat

Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Shellfish-free

Latex Allergy? More than Balloons...

The proteins in some foods, such as bananas, strawberries and kiwi can mimic the proteins in latex. For a complete list and more information click here:

Cleveland Clinic