The pleasures of wine...

I love to kill the pleasures of life. Some time ago I blogged about the detrimental effects of coffee. This time I will kill off any pleasure of drinking wine, for those reacting to it...


Are you sensitive to wine?

Thank goodness I do not experience any of those symptoms... because as the magnet I gave hubby yesterday states:

Late night reflections

While hubby is out giving his liver a hard time and I should be giving a break to my adrenal glands by sleeping, I find myself listening once again to interesting webshows with low carb experts.

First this one where Tom "Fat Head" Naughton participates: Canadian Radioshow with Tom Naughton

And then this one in Swedish, with the two most famous LCHF doctors in Sweden:  doktor-dahlqvist-berattar-sin-historia

What strikes me the most is that both of them are saying almost the exact same thing: The establishment (state, politicians, medical advisors, scientific experts) will probably never admit having been wrong in the dietary recommendation but that the revolution and the "salvation" of the human health happens on the internet. 

Second, one very, now I mean VERY important point made by Tom Naughton is about the dangerous situation of all those people suffering from gluten related deseases but who do not realize it, and their doctors are treating symptoms, not looking for causes. This is exactly what I was trying to explain to a friend yesterday, how frustrated I become when I hear of people suffering from ailments, ills and pains, allergies and infections, even autoimmune deseases that so often are mentioned on these glutenfree/lowcarb/natural health blogs as being related to gluten sensitivity ... but these persons are seldomly aware of it, because their doctors do not make the connection. Often, I believe the doctor only treats the illness. But while the cause is not detected new illnesses will continue to appear...and it is my experience that very few doctors have a good understanding of what mess gluten can cause in our bodies. At some point for a gluten sensitive person it might get very ugly. And sorry guys, the gluten tests are NOT reliable...

So people out there, be aware - read up on gluten and particularly wheat - it might save you from many many grievances in the future. At the end of the day, does it really hurt to be aware? I mean, if you are like I used to be you probably don't want to listen because you just loooove than bread, that bun, that lasagna, that bagel... but hey, as you can see from my blog and the links to other blogs on my page - there are many treats out there that are glutenfree. Life doesn't end when you stop eating bread - it is actually right there where real life starts!


...And one more thing, can someone PLEASE tell Fazer that it is totally USELESS to add milk foam fat and 1% milk foam to their 70% chocolate. What kind of dark chocolate is that? Dark chocolate should be 100% milkfree. I am quite p*ssed off actually. Enough that they put soy lecitin in almost all chocolates (Lindt doesn't, thank you very much) but milk? Completely useless.

Beating the weather...

I baked another cake from one of the spunky books this morning (still cooked beans left). She calls it the marble cake - I call it the "tiger cake", we used to have the same when I was little - but my mom made it with conventional ingredients. Never in my life would I have come to think of using beans instead of wheat!!! Crazy! But it works, and it turned out wonderful. Look at this:

 

For lunch we went for a picinic to an island outside Helsinki. Hmmm, lunch at 3 p.m...the family had gone wild on the cake above at lunch time so we had to delay the normal lunch hour a bit. Convenient as then we had time to prepare meatballs from scratch. And as usual this summer, just as we have packed our things and are all ready to go, we see the dark clouds mounting in the horizon... But just as every other time we didn't care. We just took the ferry and left the clouds on mainland. And instead we had an excellent afternoon out in the sun.

Seagulls following us, and the clouds..

The famous postal card view of our city. With the typical summer clouds anno 2012.

Check the thunder clouds, they actually passed right by but not even a drip of water... its good to be in the "archipelago" as it rains inland....

All kids out on the island were either eating icecream or cakes as they ran around in the grass or as they jumped on the ferry. Our kids also wanted something in their hand when they saw what the others ate. I was filled with joy to pass on a "tiger bean cake" that made them happy! Joy joy for healthified treats! :-)


But the cake bonanza didn't end there... In the evening I still baked another one from the spunky recipes. This time zucchini-based. I used Maca powder instead of rise flour and I was sure the kids would hate it because they aren't too found of the smell of maca. Particularly not Kidone. Guess what? She ran back to the kitchen twice to cut herself another piece... That's my sugar sweet gal! And this was on top of dinner, which actually was another funny anecdote of the day.

For dinner I tried mixing up some Thai veggies I have bought in the Thai food store in Hakaniemi during the year. No clue what it is but need to empty the freezer so better get on with it. No clue how to prepare them but I tried wooking... then adding some tamari...some spices...wanted to add lemon but no lemon in the house..added more mild spices, some coconut milk... and hmmm... well.... no... didn't even try to serve it to the kids. Complete disaster. Hubby agreed. Flushed away, quickly... Luckily we still have plenty of meatballs - and some potatoes to go with them!

But here is still a picture of the zucchini-maca cake. Still have some left for tomorrow!... if hubby doesn't get home too hungry from his night out with the boys that is...

Lucky friends - lucky me!

I just tried posting on Facebook a status about the delicious smell in our home tonight...but it didn't appear. Better do it here instead then. I've been trying out the first baking recipe from my book selection of Spunky Coconut. And earlier today I made another ice cream for some friends with dairy allergies.

I was going to say that aren't my friends lucky that get to try out these new creations. But as I was frosting the cake I realized I'd better refrase.... I am so lucky to have friends that go along as guinea pigs in my gluten, sugar and milkfree endeavors. Soon we will have parties coming up - and I believe the judgement from 5 year olds will be harsher than the critics coming from my adult friends...

Strawberry ice cream with chocolate (86%) topping. Emptied 1 liter in less than 10 minutes. Define gluttony! ;-)

Chocolate frosted whitebean (!) cake - for tomorrow's visit to friends place (friend if you read this, get prepared!!!)


And there my first ice cream attempts - pretty successful according to the judges (age: 2,4, 25+, 35+)

Easy there kiddo... Fresh (Danish) strawberry twist - coconut milk based (check out my new miracle machine, isn't it beautiful?)

Coconut mint stracciatelli topped with pecan nuts. My personal favourite so far, although the coconut milk was not the best one (granulated a bit when cooled - Biona, go figure...)

Experience hunting junkies

After our vacation I have started to look at children's program with completely new eyes. I have started to reflect (critically, of course, whatelse?) upon how we are bringing up our kids in this modern world. It all started we me recognizing that some foods are addictive, and realizing that the major portion of the standard intake of food is actually based on this addiction. Through our eating habits we are constantly seeking for new injections of addictive substances (sugar & wheat, coffee & alcohol, heck even chocolate!). Eating is no longer about fulfilling our body's necessity of food, it is about bringing us pleasures. With the wide range of foods from all parts of the world, we have the luxury to pick and choose whatever feels right. I guess this is not something new, we are all aware of this, at least to some extent. Right?

Then I started to move away from my thoughts on food, and started to look at lifestyles. And particularly lifestyles of families with small kids. And what do I find? Well, that since our modern day life has granted us with so much free time (this because we do not need to hunt&gather&grow our own food, since it is flewn in from faraway places) we now also seek ways to fill our free time with more and more experiences. The meaning of life has become hunting new experiences, whether it is about what that last technical gadget, or sailing boat can bring or what a children's adventure park has to offer, doesn't matter. It seems, the bigger, the better. And we all scream for more, more, more. The amusement parks are crammed in the summer. Children's mecca such as "the World of Astrid Lindgren" and "Legoland" are so crammed with people that you become dizzy just trying to park outside.

I now have to say no thank you to these places. Thank goodness we didn't make it to Legoland this summer. In my vacation experiences from anno 2012 I will cherish those moments that were far away from "addictive experiencing hunting". And those places were for example a swim in a nice little lake somewhere near Astrid Lindgren's (true) childhood neighborhoods, or just sitting on the beach of nothern Jylland (Denmark), watching the chidlren run in and out of Skagerack waves. That was a true pleasure for me, and I also think the children liked it a lot.

Still, I feel that I need to get back to basics in the summer time. I have said it before, I will say it again: I need to dig my hands in the dirt. I need to start cultivating my own veggies...Traveling through Sweden, I realized how much precious beautiful land we have at our disposal here up in the North - without any use anymore! (I do not count wheat as a useful use of land). Hello, look what the EU has done - people have stopped caring for their land - why bother, when Spain can ship over some cheap fruits and veggies to us...and we can be happy and free during the summer...hunting experiences...

Then again, this summer has been so rainy that there is little hope of a good harvest anyway. So, really, why bother? Maybe, just maybe because of escaping the experience hunting? Finding another meaning of life than endless shopping and entertainment lifestyle.

Dunno. But I feel kinda lost.

(pst: really, I was amazed by Småland's beautiful landscape, the cows out eating grass, the sheep in the wood... I think Sweden has a lot more to offer than only wheat and rapseed fields - so much more common in Finland)

Vacation traps

I've now been conducting some real life etnographic observations on vacation and kids foods. Or actually, vacation and food for anyone. And the only thing I can say is: we are lost. Seriously. How many spagettherias can one small tourist town take? Or Ice cream places for that matter. Not to speak of the food intake habits on Scandinavian ferries... or in children's attraction places - now referring to the higher end attraction - the World of Astrid Lindgren. The poor lady must be restless in her grave, knowing what they have done to her legacy. I am so disappointed. But hey, don't know what I was expecting either. In the World of Astrid Lindgren we chose the "best choice" as in restaurants. Still, the offering for children were either meatballs in creamy sause with mashed potatoes or sausages with macaroni&cream.  There were really no dairy free option. And very few gluten free.

Now that we are in Denmark I haven't even seen the menus being marked with G or L or M for gluten/lactose/milk free options. In this little tourist town the icecream bars lies side by side and somewhere inbetween there are a couple of pizzerias/spagettherias. The specialty of the fish restaurants by the sea is nothing less than: fish and chips, and to find a fish that is not covered in breadcrumbs is a challenge. I wonder, why does it have to be so hard to have healthy food while on vacation? Luckily we now have access to a nice kitchen and I just bought an icecream machine... lets see if we can pimp up our choices by DIY-solutions...

I didn't imagine it would be so hard to go on vacation. I wasn't prepared for the common habit of coffee&cake/icecream at least once a day. I have no problem with some rule breaking once in a while but when the exceptions come daily its no longer a rule breaker... it is a habit... and although we are on vacation, I am not too found of such habits. But I guess I am the only one suffering here - the others are more than happy to be on vacation!  hahaha... should have seen how the family emptied the Bambino gelato this afternoon... so funny, have to laugh at our "cravings" for sweets...


Are there any healthy options when out and about these days? Doesn't feel like it... Hubby is right now in line for fresh local lamb meat at the butcher's shop. We'll do some nice stuff for dinner tonight. At "home".

Empty house

I am back home. Alone. Nothing can be more depressive than that. Well yes, an empty refrigerator. No, sorry correction, a refrigerator filled with stuff that should have left the building together with us before midsummer.Yak.

I am starting the "eat up the food storage project". Note, not the stuff I found in the refrigerator, it already made its way down to the compost. No I mean the stuff in the freezer. Will do the berries first and then move on to the food experiments from the past year. Looking forward to blood pancakes for breakfast tomorrow morning...

Chingeling!