Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • Gluten Free Pizza from Dominos – but it may contain traces of gluten.

    So, Domino’s Pizza Australia is doing a range of gluten free pizzas now.

    Which is great, it truly is. I was over the moon when I heard, knowing that some days, I would just really like to be able to buy a pizza, without all the hassle of making my own bases.

    I did a quick search, to see if it really was true, or if it was a rumour and no, definitely truth.

    Inevitably I wondered at the price of gluten free bases and so clicked over to the Domino’s website to check out the pricing on gluten free bases.

    Only to find this when I moused over the gluten free base selection.

    Gluten Free Base* Although all due care is taken with your order, your meal may contain traces of gluten. Please note your pizza topping selection may not be gluten free.

    I was struck dumb, before starting to swear and curse just a little.

    What use is a gluten free pizza, if it isn’t actually gluten free? I am not taking objection to the possibility of some of the topping choices not being gluten free. I know to avoid those. However, there are 13 toppings advertised as being GF choices.

    And if it were just the toppings that were not gluten free, wouldn’t it only mention toppings? Not this line about ‘Although all due care is taken…’

    So, Dear Domino’s,

    Did you know in Australia, to declare something GLUTEN FREE, it needs to actually be, GLUTEN FREE?

    It is illegal in Australia, to call something gluten free, if there is a chance it may contain traces of gluten. ILLEGAL.

    False advertising all around and I am fuming.

    Now, if I hadn’t researched, if I’d just gone down to the local pizza shop and bought a pizza that is declared GLUTEN FREE and endorsed by the Coeliac Society of Australia, then there is a good possibility that your pizza would have made my little girl very ill.

    When she has gluten, it damages her intestines. She gets stomach pain and diarrhoea. Her behaviour deteriorates and she can’t control her moods or her body properly. She can’t absorb any nutrients from her gluten free diet and she loses weight, all because of a little bit of gluten.

    It takes her gut THREE WEEKS to heal. Three weeks of a very sick little girl, all because something that should have been gluten free was contaminated with trace amounts of gluten.

    It’s not good enough Domino’s, not good enough at all.

    And to the Coeliac Society of Australia, I think your research was flawed and for you to be endorsing a product that isn’t actually gluten free disappoints me.

    Edited to add:

    I have spoken to the Coeliacs Society of Australia and they want to make it very clear that they are only endorsing the BASES of Domino’s gluten free pizza’s. The bases are made elsewhere and are certified gluten free.

    Forgive me for thinking this, but when you say gluten free pizza, I imagine a base with tomato and toppings and cheese on top. Not just a baked base. Yes, the base might be gluten free when it leaves the factory, but it doesn’t stay that way if it is then contaminated with gluten while in the Domino’s store. And Dominos even says itself that they have 13 different gluten free toppings – so why aren’t they endorsed too? Oh wait, that’s right, because they can’t guarantee the gluten free status of them.

    I am so so angry.

    **

    Edited to add – I left this in the comments, but thought it would probably be better up here.

    The Laws –

    16 Claims in relation to gluten content of food
    (1) Claims in relation to the gluten content of food are prohibited unless expressly
    permitted by this Code.

    (2) A claim to the effect that a food is gluten free must not be made in relation to a food
    unless the food contains –
    (a) no detectable gluten; and
    (b) no –
    (i) oats or their products; or
    (ii) cereals containing gluten that have been malted, or their products.

    From here – http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/ACF2A90.pdf Page 15 of the PDF file. From Food Standards Australia and New Zealand

    ***

    I am unsticking this post, not because Domino’s has addressed my concerns (form letter – not good enough) but because the tone of the comments is getting nasty and I’m not quite prepared to deal with much more personal nastiness. That said, comments will remain open and I will continue discussions with Domino’s, The ACCC and Food Standards Australia in regards to the illegal labelling.

  • Top 50 Australian Women Bloggers

    I know this has been done before, but…

    There are plenty of Australian Women Bloggers out there in the blogosphere and what better way to bring everyone together than a list?

    Technorati has recently undergone a huge makover, meaning that rankings have changed as well as Authority. In order to do this list, I used Technorati and Alexa ranks to work out who sits where.

    Formula: 3X Australian Alexa + Technorati Rank + Global Alexa\5 =

    If you think I’ve made a terrible mistake, please, email me and give me your URL and site name. I may have missed you.

    In order to be included, you need to have both a valid Technorati Authority and Rank as well as an Australian Alexa ranking.

    I’m thinking about updating this every 3 months, what do you think?

    [table id=1 /]

  • Harvest Time

    Baby carrots

    Broad Beans

    Peas

    Kale and Spinach

    Broad Beans shelled

    Shelled peas

    Kale, spinach, silver beet chopped

    Harvest time. Dinner tonight will be all vegies from our garden. I’m pleased with our efforts.

  • Gluten Free Cheese Crackers

    101

    I’ve been searching for a recipe for Gluten Free cheese crackers for a few weeks and after coming up with nothing that tempted me, I threw everything together and made my own.

    Here is what you do –

    Take 200g of chilled butter and cube it up.

    Cubed butter

    Add 110g of Rice Flour, 110g of Tapioca Starch and 130g of Potato Flour. Set it to mix until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.

    looks like breadcrumbs

    Then add 230g of finely grated cheese.

    Cheese

    and mix until the mixture starts to look a little clumped together. Add 1/2tspn salt, 3 spring onions, finely chopped, 5 cloves of garlic crushed and a bunch of parsley, finely chopped and mix some more.

    Spring Onions

    Parsley

    It should start to hold together a little more, like this –

    Coming together

    While the mixer is running, add 2 tablespoons of milk and mix until it balls together.

    Mixed

    Pull it out of the mixer and shape into 2 large sausages. Wrap them in cling wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.

    Sausages

    Once it’s been in the freezer for 30 minutes, preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

    Slice the rolled dough into slices about 5mm thick (1/4 inch) and place onto a tray lined with baking paper.

    Sliced

    And then bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.

    Gluten Free Cheese Crackers

    They’re delicious.

    Ingredients: (your American weights are guesstimated to ‘close enough’ with my calculator. It will still work)

    230g cheese, finely grated (8 ounces)
    200g butter (7 ounces)
    110g Rice Flour (4 ounces)
    110g Tapioca (4 ounces)
    130g Potato Flour (4.5 ounces)
    1/2 tspn salt
    5 cloves of garlic (optional)
    3 spring onions (optional)
    a bunch of parsley, about 1/3 c chopped
    2 Tbsn milk

    Method:

    Mix the butter into the flours until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Continue mixing and add your cheese, it will clump together a little after a while. When it does, add your garlic, salt, spring onions and parsley. Mix it some more until it starts to pull together and then add your milk. Mix for another minute, or until the milk is all combined.

    Shape into sausages and wrap with cling wrap. Freeze for 30 minutes, before pulling them out of the freezer and slicing into 5mm slices.

    Bake at 180C (350F) until golden brown and crispy.

  • Catching up

    Firstly, I can’t promise that I’ll give this post my whole attention, because there are cowboys on my TV. Cowboys, wearing chaps and riding bucking creatures. In all honesty, I’m writing this post in the ad breaks, spending the rest of the time staring at the chaps.

    And the bums. Let’s not forget the bums.

    Yes. I do have a small thing for cowboys. Shush.

    It’s also pouring with rain, so I’m not even able to hear the cowboys properly. That might be a good thing though.

    Anyway.

    Updates:

    I spent all day baking, levelling and freezing the layers for my BIL’s wedding cake. It was fun. I miss baking with proper flours and not having to weigh and measure and count 4 different types of flour to make things work.

    Now I’ll I’ve got to do is make a ganache (a few days before), make some buttercream, source a large cake platter and get a giant list written up of things to do.

    My children are sick. Snotty and grotty and I’m fairly sure Isaac is cutting another tooth. I’m sleep deprived. But then, that’s what I get for calling my blog Sleepless Nights.

    I’ve also been writing an awful lot. Like, submerging myself in the writing until I dream my characters and spend hours having imaginary conversations inside my head. It’s not made me a great mother or partner that’s for sure.

    I was thinking last night: Bravery is sticking your nipple back in the baby’s mouth once you’ve been bitten. That? Takes balls. Isaac is going through a bitey nibbley stage. He’s also spending a lot of time crawling up to me just to lick my leg or arm, and he loves licking my laptop, so I’ll suggest that these teeth are the problem. Either that or he just likes tasting things.

    ‘OOH! LOOK! A BATHTUB! SOME WATER! AN APPLE! A SHOE! YUM!!!’

    He does everything at high volume too, just like his sister.

    Tomorrow we have a Memorial being held by the Palliative Care people here. It’s going to be shit. I’m taking a box of tissues. Think of me at 3pm EST. Or you know, in about 18.5 hours.

    And that ends my updatey time post. Sorry about the drivel.

    But you know, chaps  and cowboys and stuff.