Wilton brand Cake Sparkles and Gel

Spoke with Kerry at Wilton Industries Customer Service yesterday. 1800-794-5866.
Pink, stock 703-1260 (UPC 70896-07260)
Purple, stock 703-1266 (UPC 70896-07266)
Yellow, stock 703-1272 (UPC 70896-07272)

There is no "may contain" warning either on the packaging or on their website, but these cake sparkles are all made in a facility that does process dairy, egg and soy ingredients. (at least it is nut/peanut free, and no fish/shellfish).

I asked them to look into the other allergies and left them my email address; she warned it might take a few days to get the info.

Update: Here is the response:

Good Morning Customer,
Thank you for your inquiry.
Please be aware, the following information regarding Food Allergens, Food Sensitizers, or Food specifications is to the best of our knowledge believed to be accurate.
There is no lamb, legumes or gelatin in the product or the manufacturing environment for the gel tubes or cake sparkles.
If we can be of any other assistance, please contact us.

Sincerely,
Kerry
Consumer care center


-----Original Message-----
From: Thayer, Angela
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 2:31 PM
To: Merola, Kerry
Subject: RE: Allergen Question

None of those items are in either of the products.
The manufacturing facility of the Red Gel Tube does not contain any of those items either.
The manufacturing facility of the Cake Sparkles has a fish gelatin but that gelatin is in a different part of the building and is not put down the same line as our cake sparkles. The fish gelatin does not come into contact with the cake sparkles.

Thanks,
Angie

-----Original Message-----
From: Merola, Kerry
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 9:01 AM
To: Thayer, Angela
Subject: Allergen Question

Hi Angie,

I have a customer who needs to know whether Legumes, Lamb and/or Gelatin is in the product or manufacturing environment of stock # 704-318 & 703-1266.
Thank you, I appreciate your assistance.

Have a good day.
Kerry

Kerry Merola
Wilton Industries

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake (with peppermint, opt)

adapted from http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=74242

I don't remember who sent me this recipe but it isn't mine and I haven't made it so you might want to try a practice one to try it, should work well for cupcakes. You can use any flavoring you like in place of the peppermint.
Makes 12 Servings

Preheat oven to 325F.

Prep a 10 inch bundt pan (spray with cooking oil or grease with all-vegetable shortening) and set aside.

Dry ingredients

Sift together in large bowl and whisk together well:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  
• 1 cup white sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients

Whisk together by hand in medium bowl:

• 1-3/4 cup (375 ml) unsweetened applesauce
  
• 1/4 cup canola oil
  
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
  
• 1 Tbsp peppermint extract (PS - make it a short tablespoon)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry with a few swift strokes just until blended. Pour into bundt pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Cool on rack.

UPDATE: this was an AWESOME cake - Added allergen-free chocolate chips and baked a double batch in a (rented) butterfly cake mold. Next time, though, we'll go just a tad lighter than prescribed on the peppermint extract.
UPDATE 2: we tried again with orange extract instead of peppermint; result was far below expectations - maybe a little too heavy on the baking soda.
UPDATE 3: no all-purpose flour so used 1 cup WW flour with 1 cup Pastry flour and 1 Tbsp gluten. Added 1 cup choc chips. Also didn't find any flavouring so used extra Tbsp applesauce. Finally, poured a single batch into a 9x13 pan. I hope it'll rise enough...

Kathy's Barbequed Wings

from http://www.angelfire.com/mi/FAST/maindishes.html

Submitted by KL

In Buffalo, eating wings is now a tradition, but authentic sauces usually contain butter.

Wings are also often deep fried. This lower fat version cooks the wings in the oven (but they're still plenty fattening!) Hot sauce on the side should please the daring adult palate, but these sweeter tasting wings are kid friendly. This barbecue sauce is also delicious for ribs...

3 to 4 tablespoons canola oil, or other preferred oil
1 onion, large size, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup honey, or molasses
1/4 cup vinegar, or lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
5 to 6 pounds chicken wings, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 375. Place wings in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Cook at 375 for 25-35 minutes until juices run clear. Cooking time is longer with frozen wings (follow package direction).

In the meantime, saute onions in oil until soft and translucent, but not brown. Add garlic, saute for 2-3 minutes longer.

Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Place cooked chicken on a broiler rack, coat one side with barbecue sauce. Set oven to broil. Broil chicken for 10 minutes. Turn chicken wings, and coat with remaining sauce. Return to oven and broil for additional 10 minutes. Serve with raw celery and carrots, any leftover sauce.

5-6 pounds will yield approximately 60-70 wings. Leftovers can be frozen.

UPDATE: My sister made this with molasses (not honey) over the weekend - tasted great!

Egg-Free, Wheat-Free, Milk-Free Meatloaf

from http://www.bigoven.com/81795-Egg-Free,-Wheat-Free,-Milk-Free-Meatloaf-recipe.html

1 1/2 lb Ground Beef	1 ds -Pepper
1/4 c Raw, grated potato	1/2 c Broth; up to 1 cup
1/4 c Chopped	1 c Chopped Vegetables
1/4 c Grated Carrot	Green peppers etc
3/4 ts -Salt;or less

Mix all ingredients. Bake at 350* for 1 hour. You do not have to add the optional vegetables, but it is a good way for children to learn to enjoy them.
PROTEIN: 135.5 grams; CALORIES: 1466
These are all from the _Whole_Foods_For_The_ _Whole_Family_Cookbook_. From: SANDRA MAY Refer#: NONE Conf: (1010) F-COOKING From Geminis MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

Note: I went with 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth, added 1/3 cup quick oatmeal and skipped the chopped veggies and green pepper, then pressed the whole thing into a large pie plate so it can cook faster.

UPDATE: vegetables released quite a bit of water, and the organic ground beef I used gave it a really peculiar flavour. We liked it, but the intended diner wouldn't touch it (or let anything else in his plate touch it). Oh well.

sweet poem about the emotional journey

This poem is pretty bang-on. My wife received it at an allergy support group meeting a while back, I just stumbled upon it myself tonight. Of course I googled it, and support groups for parents of kids with all types of disabilities everywhere in the english-speaking world use it. No surprise there.
Ironic thing is that I have visited family in Holland many times, and we visited Italy when only 3mos pregnant with our child.

Welcome to Holland - Emily Perl Kingsley
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this ...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip … to Italy. You can buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Colosseum the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. Its all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes and says "Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a new language and you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And the rest of your life, you will say "Yes that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I planned".

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

birthday parties

preparing safe food for them is going to be a lot of work...
Anyway, he kept playing in the living room while the other 3yos smooshed their food everywhere at/around the table, then he popped over in time for dessert (special chocolate cupcake with Dairy Free ice cream). All in all worked out quite well!

blue menu all beef sausages update

Frederic just called re blue menu sausages inquiry from June.
Going through cases not closed yet; was apologetic about delay. The top 10 allergens were not in the product, line nor plant. Previous product made was "Frankfurters in a skin." He'll reissue a request to confirm legumes, lamb and gelatin.