I heard the fabulous Michael Ruhlman speak at Blogher Food 2010 in San Francisco last year.  He was inspiring, honest and accessible.  His love of, and knowledge of, food is vast.  A couple years ago, Ruhlman wrote a piece on his blog outlining all of the reasons he cooks.  He encouraged others to do so as well.  Here's my go at it.

Why do I cook?  Well, as Ruhlman stated, in this day and age, it is self-defense.  Goodness only knows what is added to our food these days.  I'm a control freak.  I like to know what I'm putting into my body.  That's a great reason to cook.

Like Ruhlman (he states he began cooking at age 9), I began cooking as a child.  When I was in the 4th grade, I recall coming home everyday for lunch, turning on the electric pullout stove in our kitchen and frying up a kosher beef frank --that would be called a hotdog nowadays.  My parents both worked full time and I learned to take care of myself early on.

By 5th grade we had moved to a new house around the corner.  We had a yellow enamel gas stove.  I came home from school for lunch almost every day and opened up a can of re-fried beans, heated them, then grated orange cheddar cheese on top.  By high school, all of my friends came over for lunch just about everyday.  I made them brown rice with refried beans, salsa and cheese.  I also loved to bake cookies (they were not the gluten free kind in those days, prior to my celiac diagnosis).  By the time I was a junior in high school I baked chocolate chip cookies and sold them at the tennis club where I taught tennis lessons.  I was a busy girl back then!

I still love to cook.  My two sons, as well as all of the boys in our neighborhood come to my house when they want to create a special baked good.  Last week it was gluten free organic ice cream cake that the gang and I made from scratch.  Sometimes it's cookies, chocolate bark or cupcakes.  Other days it's salad.  The gang loves my gluten free Asian Salad Dressing and gobbles down all of their salad when I serve this dressing over greens.  I love baking with the boys, and feeding them, it is so much fun!

First, so many thanks go to Michael Ruhlman for all of his wisdom and inspiration --he's a great teacher when it comes to food and cooking.

Now it's time for me to get back to the kitchen.  I'm going to be making a yummy chicken stew since it's so cold outside, and some delicious gluten free cake pops since the Super Bowl is coming up!  What are you going to make?

I've been meaning to do a post about gluten free dining in Vail for eons.

And I could easily title this "Gluten Free Dining in Vail," or give it some other similar such name, however, when it comes to dining gluten free in Vail, there is really only one "place" that I feel entirely at home and taken care of.  Where would that be?  Larkspur Restaurant, or, for that matter, any of the restaurants owned by Thomas Salamunovich.

Thomas is a master when it comes to food (especially farm to table, more on that later) and fabulous with gluten free.  His menus are labeled with gluten free symbols, making it super easy to work your way through and coolly place your order --and he has delicious gluten free desserts to boot.

About those gluten free desserts?  Thomas, a prolific businessman, sells gluten free desserts, snacks and other eats to skiers and their ilk in Vail, right at the bottom of the mountain in Golden Peak.  He runs the "grab and go shops," The Market in Vail and Avondale Market at the bottom Beaver Creek with many gluten free options.  Pretty cool that gluten free is making it into top restaurants around the country.  And when I say "top restaurants" I'm talking about Larkspur in Vail --it's one of the best in Colorado and deserves national recognition as well.

Thomas was one of a select number of chefs featured in the fabulous book Colorado Organic, by Jen Olsen.  The book features the growing popularity of the farm to table movement throughout Colorado.  And eating at any of Thomas' restaurants is a treat.  All of the ingredients are pure, fresh and delicious, in addition to the benefits of his specially made dishes for those of us that are gluten free.

Lucky for us, Thomas recently opened a restaurant called Larkburger in Boulder, Colorado.  It's a burger joint at its best (very green as well) and we frequent it often.  He also has a Larkburger in Edwards, Colorado.

For those of you that are Beaver Creek people, not Vail people, Thomas runs Restaurant Avondale in Avon, at the base of Beaver Creek.

Wherever you are, (Vail, Beaver Creek, Boulder or Edwards) if you find yourself in the mountains of Colorado, you may want to make a point of eating at any one of Thomas' fantastic restaurants.

Thomas Salamunovich is head chef, owner and founder of the Savory Group.  And in case you are lucky enough to meet him, you might want to know, that he is an all around wonderful guy.

For more information on dining out gluten free, see my posts Gluten Free Restaurants in Boulder and Gluten Free Restaurants in New York City.

Leave a comment and let us know what some of your favorite restaurants are and where they are located!

Hanukkah oh Hanukkah come light the menorah! Let's have a party we'll all dance the horah! Hanukkah is the festival of lights. During this time, the darkest time of year, we celebrate the miracle of light, and it is a holiday that I enjoy ever so much.

In Judaism, Hanukkah is merely a minor festival; our big holidays, or "holy days" are Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Hanukkah lasts 8 days and involves the nightly lighting of the Menorah (referred to also as a Hanukiah). What is a Menorah or Hanukiah? It is a candelabrum with 8 candle holders in a row and a separate candle holder for the "Shamash." The Shamash is used to light the other 8 candles and is necessary since the Hanukkah lights are for the sole purpose of viewing.

So, what is this miracle of which I speak? The miracle we celebrate at Hanukkah commemorates the victory that took place after the King of Syria (Antiochus) and his forces desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem. The Maccabees victoriously took back the Temple. Unfortunately, upon retaking this sacred place, it looked as though it would not be possible to keep the eternal flame lit -- only a small container of oil remained. However, this little bit of oil, which should have been enough to last only one day, fueled the flame in the Temple for 8 days, which was the amount of time needed to obtain additional oil. Hence the miracle.

We light the Menorah each night of Hanukkah (by the way, it's also spelled Chanukah, both are correct) and we also say special blessings over the candles that we do not say at any other time of year. We also sing lovely Hanukkah songs (such as the one I started this post off with) and eat lots of fried foods to commemorate the miracle of the oil.

Last week, I had asked that everyone leave a comment discussing your favorite charitable organization, volunteer opportunity, or something that you are grateful for in your life. Lisa mentioned a group called the Women's Development Association, a non-profit that raises funds to sponsor young women and children in the ghettos of Lahore, Pakistan. Lisa was randomly chosen as the winner of last weeks giveaway for the book Half the Sky. Congrats Lisa, and thanks everyone for your super inspiring comments, I was very moved by all of them.

Wow.  Thanks for your generous response to the announcement of my forthcoming book Gluten-Free Cupcakes!

I very much appreciate all of your comments and am really happy about having the opportunity to answer some of these questions directly.

First off though, I want to let you all know that writing the book was a fabulous experience this past summer which my entire family enjoyed. It's amazing to me that my boys, now aged 10 ½ and 12 are old enough to truly participate in my work projects, whether it's pre-testing a recipe, or selecting and reviewing recipes that they deem as book-worthy.  And my husband?  He is the best, most honest taste tester in the world --my world, at least.

Although I can be a bit of a lone wolf, and like to work by myself, I feel blessed to work with my children and hubby and evolve into more and more of a team member.  For me, that's really what family life has taught me and it's been a long and interesting experience of personal growth, that I feel more than lucky to have.

So, back to business, the business of the book!  I would like to answer a few reader questions and comments left on my Gluten-Free Cupcakes Cookbook post.

Don't forget about the giveaway for a chance to win a preordered copy of Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour. This giveaway will end Monday, October 11th, 2010. The book will be shipped out to the winner on its release date, April 26th, 2011. Everybody everywhere is eligible!

The winner of last weeks giveaway for Kelly Brozyna's book, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook is Nikki!  Speaking of The Spunky Coconut, Kelly has posted a version of my Savory Vegetable Quiche from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook on her website and is also doing a giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook! So, head on over and leave a comment to be entered.

In other news, I'll be attending Blogher in San Francisco today and tomorrow (October 8th and 9th), where I'll also be a speaker.  If you are at the conference I would love to meet you.  On Saturday morning, I'll be moderating a discussion on the ins and outs of recipe writing.  I hope to see you at my panel (which includes Gaby from WhatsGabyCooking.com and Jennie from InJenniesKitchen.com) for what I foresee as a potentially lively discussion!

Finally, remember, voting is still on for the Pacific Foods Everyday Chef Challenge.  I'm in the final round, so if you have a minute, head on over there and vote for the only gluten free blogger.

Here's a big thank you to everyone who voted for my Thai Vegetable Soup recipe (pictured above) in the Pacific Foods Everyday Chef Challenge! * I'm now in the finals thanks to all of you!

The last round of voting has begun; it's between my Thai Vegetable Soup and Herbivoracious' Tortillas and Spinach in Black Bean Sauce. You can vote once every 24 hours until Tuesday, October 12th, 2010. Voting is as easy as pushing a button, no registration required; vote early and often for your favorite recipe --whether it's mine or Herbivoracious'!

I've had a lot of fun making new recipes incorporating Pacific Natural Foods broths and soups and want to thank Pacific for the opportunity to be a featured blogger in this contest.  I also want to give a special thanks to Jaden from Steamy Kitchen for moderating the event.  By the way, in case you don't know her, Jaden rocks and so does her cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

Finally, thanks so much to all of you for supporting a gluten free blogger (that's me) with your votes in this challenge!

* Disclosure: I am working with Pacific Natural Foods as a participant in this promotion and have received a stipend

As I blogged about in yesterdays Grilled Portabella Mushrooms post, my husband and I just returned from a vacation in Napa where we had an amazing time.  After dropping the boys off at my parents house, then catching up on sleep for the first 3 days of our trip, we stepped out to some of the valley's fabulous restaurants.

First we went to a restaurant in St. Helena called Press.  It was easy to get into and they handled the gluten free thing really well.  My husband had steak and I had salmon which was delectable.  We also ordered sides of broccoli and mushrooms which were fantastic. That was Press, I highly recommend it.

Next we went to Dry Creek Kitchen, Charlie Palmer's restaurant.  I was feeling a little sentimental about this venue as Palmer's New York City restaurant Aureole, was one of my first clients back in the day, when I had my environmental consulting company Ecosav, or rather back when I was 25.  I met directly with Charlie in those days, before he was a superstar and he used to tell me about his farm in upstate New York --he was doing farm to table before there was actually a name for it.  Being in his kitchen was great fun and he always had a tight knit crew in there.  So going to Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsberg was a thrill in many ways.

I started with a salad and then had the fish (sorry, can't recall which kind) and both were outstanding.  The gluten free aspect of the meal was very well handled, though a word of caution, the maitre de told us that a wheat thickener is used in all of the ice creams.

After Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, we went to Bardessano in Yountville.  The food there was fantastic and we must have been fairly well rested by that point as it is when we were awake enough to start thinking about taking pictures of our food.  I confess, photographing my meal in a restaurant is not something I've ever done before, though it was fun.

I had the tomato salad to start, then the outrageously good scallops and for dessert a meringue type dessert with strawberry sorbet.  Amazing.  All of it!

Oh, and at Bardessano they also served this incredible little amuse-bouche of raw melon basil soup.  Delicious!

That day, we also took a tour of Silver Oak Cellars which was gorgeous and state of the art.  If you're in Napa, I highly recommend a visit there.

On our last night of vacation, we went to Redd in Yountville, which was also amazing.

I had a fabulous salad to start with local goat cheese, then scallops with cauliflower which were absolutely amazing.  My husband had the pork chops, which he said were the best he'd ever had.

Next it was off to Davis to see the boys and do two book signings.  The first one was at the Avid Reader and the second one was through the Celiac Sprue Association.  Both went very well and it was so great to meet new faces.

Finally, my sweetie and I went to my 25th high school reunion, the next day, the 4 of us traveled home.  It was a wonderful vacation full of sleep, fun and friends and couldn't have been better!

This morning I was on Fox's Good Day Colorado in order to promote tonight's book signing at Pharmaca in Boulder.

I love the folks over at Fox, they are a lot of fun and we had a good time on air making the Strawberry Shortcake recipe from my book,  The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.  If you watch the footage above you will see that the shoot went well --other than the whipped cream incident, that is.  In the end, we all enjoyed scarfing down the shortcakes off camera after the segment.

So, If you are in Boulder tonight (Thursday, April 15th) I will be at Pharmaca on Pearl Street at 6:30pm for a book signing.

I will be bringing lots of gluten free goodies for everyone to sample from my book, including my high protein, dairy free, gluten free Chocolate Chip Cookies, my Zucchini Bread and possibly more if I can get off the computer and back into the kitchen.

Hope to see you all there!

Did you know that recipes are not copyrightable?  It is very challenging to copyright a recipe.  That said, I have found that 99.99% of food bloggers and others in the industry give credit where it is due.  On that note, I especially enjoy Lillian's interpretation of my recipes via video on her site Lillian's Test Kitchen.  And kudos go to all the other bloggers out there doing what Lillian does day in and day out.

Unfortunately, sometimes things can go awry when it comes to recipe usage.  And here's an example of that.  A couple of months ago, I received a comment from one of my readers regarding a recipe for gluten free pancakes on my website.

Oh, one odd thing... I used a brand of almond flour that I found at a local health food store called Dowd & Rogers and they had the exact same pancake recipe printed on the back of the bag. The only difference is that they said to mix in a blender (instead of saying the Vitamix brand). Not sure if it means anything but thought Elana may want to know...

That was a message from katie h, one of my readers, and I didn't take it too seriously.  However, weeks later, when I compared the two recipes I could see right away what she was talking about.

Elana's Gluten Free Flapjacks Recipe *
2 eggs
¼ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup water
1 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
grapeseed oil for sauteing

1. In a Vitamix, combine eggs, agave, vanilla and water and blend on high until smooth
2. Add almond flour, salt and baking soda and blend again to incorporate dry ingredients into batter
3. Warm grapeseed oil in a large skillet over medium heat
4. Pour pancake batter onto skillet
5. Pancakes will form little bubbles, when bubbles open, flip pancakes over and cook other side
6. Remove from heat to a plate
7. Repeat process with remaining batter, adding more oil to skillet as needed

* The funniest part of all this is that this isn't my best pancake recipe

So, I contacted the parent company, the Neutraceutical Corporation of Dowd & Rogers and this is what I was told:

The law regarding copyrightability of food recipes is very clear: recipes are not copyrightable... In short, your letter alleging copyright protection in a recipe is completely meritless.

This legalese seems to be saying that Dowd & Rogers and their parent company the Neutraceutical Corporation can use as many of my (and your) recipes as they like to sell their products.   And that they do not need to give any of us credit.

I have more than 350 recipes on this site and after receiving a letter such as the above start to wonder which one Dowd & Rogers will help themselves to next.

I'm not a lawyer, however, something seems amiss here.  Wonder if any of you have run into this as well.

It was wonderful to host November's Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free blog carnival with the theme of grain free cakes. I really enjoyed seeing other people's photographs of my recipes. And more than that, I'm very much looking forward to making some of the delicious dishes by all of you featured below. I have a lot of baking to do now that this is posted, getting busy with your grain free delights.

Thanks everyone for submitting your fabulous gluten free, grain free desserts!

Here is my submission for Go Ahead Honey: Licorice & Ginger Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting. Thanks for hosting!
-Naomi (milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com)

I'm excited to be a part of Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free this month! I decided to make something a little different and make a raw carrot cupcake with coconut cashew frosting.
-Iris (thedailydietribe.com)

Grain Free Whoopie Pies.
-Erica (comfybelly.com)

For your Go Ahead Honey event, I made Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake Bars. They're my first grain free attempt, and I'm happy to say they went well =D
-Lauren (celiacteen.blogspot.com)

Here is my contribution to the grain-free cake line up: orange coconut flour cake with orange coconut oil frosting.
-Shannon (nourishingdays.com)

Vanilla cake with chocolate icing. An old post, inspired by The Spunky Coconut
-CDM (recipesbymckeeby.blogspot.com)

Here is my recipe for a flourless pecan cake - I use this basic recipe and make lots of different variations, such as maple-pecan, choc-hazelnut/almond, coffee-hazelnut, choc-orange-almond, etc. My recipe does have arrowroot in it, but it's optional.
-Joanna (quirkycooking.blogspot.com)

Super Rich Super Simple Chocolate Cakes.
-Karen (muffinfixation.blogspot.com)

Here is my submission to this month's Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free: Castagnaccio - Italian Chestnut Cake
-Jenn (jenncuisine.com

Thanks so much for hosting this month's Go Ahead Honey. It's a Triple Berry Coconut Cake.
-Amy (simplysugarandglutenfree.com)

Here are two grain free cakes! Chocolate Strawberry Cakes and a Flourless Chocolate Torte. Thanks so much for hosting, and I LOVE your book!!!.
-Cheryl (gfgoodness.com)

Cranberry Upside Down Cake.
-Carol (simplygluten-free.blogspot.com)

Elana's Pumpkin Cinnamon Cheesecake.
-Cheryl (asweetlife.org)

Here is my submission for Raspberry Coconut "Zinger Style" Cupcakes (SCD). I am looking forward to everyones submissions, what a yummy theme!
-Tracee (mrsedsresearchandrecipes.blogspot.com)

Love this carnival idea! I am submitting my post which is a fall favorite, Flourless Chocolate Beet Cake - from our pals at Bauman College :)
-Karen (cook4seasons.com)

Flourless Chocolate Banana Honey Walnut Cake.
-Shirley (glutenfreeeasily.com)

Elana, Here is a zucchini bread recipe that eats like a cake for sure. It has buckwheat (technically not a grain, the only one I can tolerate) but I didn't know if you were allowing buckwheat entries or not. Hope you are well.
-Hannah (hannahs-harvest.blogspot.com)

My entry for "Honey, what can I eat that's gluten free?". It's 'Angel Shine Cake', a mix between a sponge cake and nanaimo bars. Of course it's made without grains or sugar. Yay!
-Chelsey (thecrazykitchen.blogspot.com)

Coconut Custard Cake.
-Marillyn (just-making-noise.blogspot.com)

Flourless Chocolate Cake.
-Chaya (comfycook.wordpress.com)

Gluten Free Waffles with Blueberry Compote.
-Kelly (thespunkycoconut.com)

And of course here's my contribution, grain free chocolate and vanilla cupcakes!

Make sure you participate in next month's Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free blog carnival. Trish at Kinda Real Gluten Free Food Stephanie of Gluten Free By Nature will be hosting and the theme is holiday cookies.

In book tour news, I will be doing a book signing at Boulder Body Works tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm (December 1st). Wednesday, December 2nd I'll be teaching a gluten free dessert class at Bauman College in Boulder. Later on this coming month (December 12th) I'll be doing another book signing at Barnes and Noble on Pearl Street, right next to Whole Foods. That one is on a Saturday at 11 am.

Hope to see you at some of these fun events!

You see, I don't think computers are necessarily the best thing for my health.  And yet.  They are so much fun.  And so very efficient.  It is an ambivalent love affair that I have with the lovely little laptop that sits upon my desk.  So, I make it a priority to live real (in 3-D) and not invest any more energy than necessary in life online.  Still, I spend an inordinate amount of time in the virtual world and have practically made my peace with it.

Along those lines, in order to give you a teeny tiny glimpse into my wild cyber world, I would like to share a couple of messages from readers.  And keep in mind, the only constant in messages from readers is that nothing is constant; this online life is full of the unexpected --one of the many things I love about it.

Here is one message that was sent to me via email by way of my contact form:

Please contact me at 303-555-5555.

I would like to know where you are buying your almond flour?  After checking into it myself I have found that the price of the flour is off the charts!!!!! The most expensive flour I have ever heard of.  Whole foods does not carry it in bulk and neither does the Vitamin Cottage aka, Natural Grocers.  You can buy it pre-packed in either store for a whopping $7.00 per cup which is 16 oz.  Not very cost effective.
-Linda

When I receive something such as the above, I wonder what I am doing wrong and how I could better help.  Although I do have a list of several vendors that sell more cost effective brands of almond flour on my site (see the ingredients page), I question what I need to do differently to get information to people.  If you have any ideas, feel free to leave them in a comment below!

Then there are ones such as this:

I'm interested in using coconut flour, but if the taste is very coconutty I'm worried I wouldn't like it, your thoughts?
-Elizabeth

I'm at a bit of a loss when I receive this type of question because I think taste is such a subjective thing.  I don't think that the items I make with coconut flour taste like coconut, however, I could be wrong.  Again, I would love to hear from readers what your thoughts are on the taste of coconut flour.

Then there is this one that I received yesterday in the form of a comment from a reader about my vegan eggnog post:

...I think it should be called "vegnog" :-)
-ML

Now that's fabulous!  I read the above and the only thing that comes to mind is  --why didn't I think of that!

And finally, there is this totally outrageous card that I received from another reader:

This is one of the nicest things I have ever received. Some absolutely amazing person (Cindi!), took photos of her child eating one of my recipes at his birthday and went out of her way to send me a card.  In the mail!

This made my day, no make that month.

Thank you Cindi, you are incredible and I totally appreciate your hunting down my snail mail address and sending me this gorgeous card with your adorable child.  What could be better?!

So there you have it.  An ever so small glimpse into the missives I receive on a daily basis.

Never a dull moment; loving every minute of it,

Elana