Over the weekend I was handed some Christmas cake at a friend’s barbecue. I don’t like Christmas cake. But such was my overness with having to say no to festive food, I asked if I could eat some of the left-over ingredients – the walnuts and apricots – to feel part of the action.
So I figured it might be good to source me some “bubble-kid” Christmassy gluten-free treats. So I can go armed into this festive week. With a plate.
As an aside, the people I’ve met “virtually” over the course of this year via my gluten-free networks have proved some of my favourite people. Something about having an auto-immune disease, I think. It forces you to get real. And connect. And share. Perhaps.
Anyway, wrap your laughing gear around these….
1. Pear and Hazlenut Frangipane Tart
The glorious Aran from Cannelle Vanille shared this one. That’s her pretty pic above. Gluten Free Pie Dough
1 cup (140 grams) superfine brown rice flour
2 Tbs (20 grams) potato starch
2 Tbs (20 grams) tapioca starch
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter, cold and diced
1/2 cup (125 ml) ice cold water
Place the first five ingredients in the food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Add the cold, diced butter and pulse 10 times until the butter is cut into the flours. Add the ice water while pulsing. You might not need all of it so reserve a couple of Tbs until mixed. The dough should stick together when pressed but not be too wet.
Form the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and flatten it a bit with your hand. Refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour.
Roll out the dough to about 1/4″-1/8″ thickness and fill the tart mold with it. If the dough cracks, don’t worry, just pinch it back together. It might happen if it’s too cold. Return the tart mold to the refrigerator for another 20 minutes or so while preparing the filling.
Roll the leftover scraps and cut shapes with star cookie cutters. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake at 375F for about 8 minutes. Reserve.
Pear and Hazelnut Frangipane Filling
1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (110 grams) cane sugar
1 egg
1 cup (110 grams) hazelnut flour
1 Tbs (10 grams) tapioca starch
pinch of salt
1 Tbs dark rum, optional
7 forelle pears, halved and core removed
I found this read really very inspiring – about a Melbourne-born guy who earns $47,000 a year, one-third of which he gives away to charity. He’s also set up a movement Giving What We Can encouraging people to give 10 per cent of their earnings away. Could you do this? Could you take the plunge and just….give? It’s a good time of year to think about this.
It’s got me thinking about how tightly I hold on to “my” stuff. I get scared things will run out. I accumulate like a squirrel, mostly due to my upbringing of scarcity. Although also because I get sucked into the messages of our culture – to acquire and accumulate. But it’s dumb. I don’t need or want any of it. Eventually it shits me and I do a massive give away. One’s brewing at the moment….
It’s all or nothing, generosity. Once you’re in the space of giving, it’s effortless. But if you hold on, it’s hard to give 20 cents to a busker. We’re encouraged to grip. It takes a certain firm, conscious elan to slide into generous flow. But once you’re in it, EVERYTHING feels breezier. I think you just have to start. By giving away your lunch. Or handing out stuff you were going to sell on ebay to friends instead. It feels good. So on you go.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had an ontological debate about what gives a squirrel’s life meaning with an 82-year-old skeptic… who also happens to be one of the world’s most famous magicians and escapologists, who broke Houdini’s record for remaining sealed in a metal coffin under water for 104 minutes, and who toured with Alice Cooper in the ‘70s performing the “guillotine routine” on stage?
It’s pretty fun.
I met Canadian James Randi, known in his magician days as The Amazing Randi, on Friday while he was here attending the Australian Skeptics’ annual Amazing Meeting (that’s seriously the name). In a moment of the kind of synchronicity that skeptics frown upon, it was the day after celebrity psychic John Edwards, a target of skeptical thinkers, spoke in the same room. Amazing!
The whole experience was rendered more surreal by the fact Randi looks like he’s stepped from warlock central casting – stooped and coming up to my ribcage he sports a long white beard, wireframe spectacles and a comically cocked eyebrow. And is delightfully enthusiastic.
I’m excited about a few apps that make life sweeter, better, lighter. I’ve listed the ones I swear by. Please do add yours to the mix below (I’ll do up another post down the track of your suggestions…).
Most of you know about Bump (free) and Shazam (free), yes? The former shares contacts when you bump another Iphone owner’s phone (which also has the Bump app installed). Bump!
The latter is just mandatory. You like a song on the radio. Or in a mall. You press the button. It tells you the name of said song and artist. You can then buy it on iTunes. Shazam!
Others on my iphoney (be sure to add to the list at the bottom in the comments bit!):
Hipstamatic ($1.19)
This is seriously sweet. A photography app that will – unpredictably, randomly, in an artful way – saturate, blur, sepia your pics. It runs frames around them, makes them look like old-school Polaroids and so on. Here’s an example (the kid isn’t mine…Aldous is my best mate Rosie’s little urchin. BTW, I just noticed the Photo Restoration sign in the background…how synchrolicious!).
Sleep On It (free)
You an insomniac? Don’t know why? This one lets you track your nightly patterns and moods and daytime snoozes, helping you work out what factors are affecting your sleep and how much sleep you need each night to feel rested and energized and other stuff. It’s also an alarm.
Google (free)
Don’t waste your time with the standard browser – the app is waaaay better and funnerer. You can voice your search – you can say “Caltex” it will use GPS to find you the nearest one. Handy at trivia nights. Just say the topic and it will find the wiki for it. The recent update allows you to take a photo of, say, a book or DVD or a wine bottle and Google searches for information on it!! So clever. So fast.
Hey all, I’m chairing next year’s Happiness & Its Causes conference 16-17 June 2011 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre…the day His Holiness the Dalai Lama is speaking (he’s not speaking in Sydney this time). As a special offer I’m able to offer all you lot 15 % discount off the early bird price which closes on the 23 December.
You’ll need to call customer service on 02 8719 5118 and quote “SPEAKER” to claim the discount. The conference program, full list of speakers and brochure are available on www.happinessanditscauses.com.au
His Holiness will take part in the Science of Mind Forum with pioneering emotions researcher Dr Paul Ekman and leading mirror neurons and empathy researcher Professor Marco Iacoboni; and internationally renowned mental health researcher and Australian of the Year 2010, Professor Pat McGorry. Other speakers confirmed include renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall;
I was in the audience just now for the screening of Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure. Phenomenal. By now you’d know about Hugh smashing his eye. And Nicole and Keith and Livvie and Russ and Hugh singing “Still call Australia Home”. I cried through a lot of it. Such a wonderful, big energy. No one – … Read more
Last week I offered the opportunity for free tuition at INN. Now the winner. I got Jo to pick the name from a hat (actually a vase). The successful person is…Debra (Deb, I’ll email you direct, too). I’m REALLY sorry to those of you who missed out!!! However, I know a few of you are … Read more
I love sharing tricks for making healthy food easier to come by. How about this one. We got sent some Pureblend mixes this week. We were given them gratis, just so you know.
They work like this: they come in a range of flavours – including Mediterranean, dukkah, satay and vindaloo. And they’re a combo of seeds and spices all in one mix. But they don’t contain anything artificial and are gluten-free. So they’re flavour hits, without the crap. You sprinkle on meat and grill it. Then you have an insta-meal but without the additives. This kind of cooking is perfect for people who live on their own (me!).
I eat this way. I eat meat with flavours with a stack of vegetables. I add flavour by:
* combining dukka and yoghurt and smearing on fish and grilling (Pureblend’s dukka and satay blends work well for this)
Some time back I mentioned I don’t wear a helmet all the time. And that I don’t support mandatory helmet laws (MHLs). Over the years these admissions have triggered heated (and, sadly, misinformed) feedback. I wrote this post to explain why I arrived at my conclusions. It’s not a vain preference; my stance is based on sound science and I encourage anyone disturbed by my position, particularly those who get a little abusive in their response, to read the below, do their own research also, and to feel free to point me to legitimate and non-vested science I might have missed.
Update: I have, yes, updated this post March 2019.
There are two separate issues when discussing this topic
…and they shouldn’t be conflated.
The first: Do helmets work?
The second: Do mandatory helmetlaws work?
I’ll stress, before you read on: I’m not anti-helmet. I’m against the the mandatory helmet laws here in Australia. In fact, my interest in the topic emerged when I started questioning why Australia and New Zealand are the only countries in the world with all-age enforced MHLs. It seemed odd.
Update: According to Freestyle Cyclists, while New Zealand still has MHLs, the level of enforcement has dropped dramatically – to neglible levels – over the past five years, with national road policing manager, Inspector Peter McKennie saying their focus is on “people not wearing seatbelts, driving while impaired by alcohol, drugs or fatigue”.
Thus, Australia remains the only country in the world bogged down in this mess.
Does the rest of the world not care about the collective noggins of its citizens? Or do they not have them for good reason? Turns out it’s the latter.
If you’d like to read the column I wrote for News Ltd on this matter click here. Note: the headline isn’t mine.
Update: The few other jurisdictions that did have partially enforced laws (most didn’t issue fines) have since repealed or reformed them, including Mexico, Israel, Bosnia-Hertzegovina and Malta.
But let’s discuss the various elements of the two aspects of the argument. Be warned: the issue requires nuanced thinking!!
There’s no conclusive proof helmets save lives or limit injuries. In fact, the opposite.
The “science” on whether helmets actually protect us on an individual basis is very inconclusive and no randomised controlled trials have been done on the safety of bike helmets. The trials that have been done, however, point to the fact they don’t actually save lives. This Canadian one, published in BMJ, is a case in point. Which is part of the reason why the rest of the world don’t have MHLs (although only part of the reason; the main one is explained below). There are so many variables entailed in how this can possibly be so:
Helmets actually cause head rotation in a large number of bike accidents.
Helmets have been shown to prevent injury from “linear speeding”. But the majority of head injuries from bike accidents occur from “angular” accidents caused when the head is rotated. Hmmm. Bill Curnow, President of the Cyclists Rights Action Group in Canberra, reviewed the scientific literature for a 2008 book, Transport Accident Analysis and Prevention. He writes, “Scientific circles had ‘widely discredited’ the theory that linear acceleration is the main cause of brain injury, yet helmet makers had made a huge investment in this theory and designed their helmets accordingly, while ignoring the role of angular acceleration in causing brain injury, due to rotation of the head.
It gets worse.
Soft-shell helmets were approved a while back; they’re more comfortable and airy than previous ones. This is what most people wear these days. But wait for this:
They were approved despite advise that they caused increased rotational forces.
These helmets are tested to impact speeds of only 19.5km/h (the speed of impact of being dropped 1.5m) and to pass they only have to not shatter. If a helmet shatters, of course, it’s failed. As Dr Paul Martin at St Vincents, Sydney: “A helmet smashing into pieces is actually a sign of the helmet failing to work as it should. The foam needs to compress significantly if any forces are to be attenuated. If it cracks or breaks before the foam compresses then it has done nothing to help you. The documents can be read in full at your local state library (the main one is AS/NZS2063 and the testing documents are AS/NZS2512).
The new helmet standards mandate that the straps now have to stretch to allow the helmet to come off after the ‘initial impact’. As Dr Paul says, “How does the helmet ‘know’ if the initial impact is going to be the ‘big one’?”
Helmets that don’t comply with the updated standard are illegal to sell but not illegal to wear (if you can follow that logic) I.e. You might have a helmet that you bought before the updated helmet laws, but you can still wear it… which makes a law forcing people to wear such helmets just a bit ridiculous).
A bicycle helmet will not protect your face…nor your cervical spine.
Which is kind of important.
Helmets make riders – and drivers – less cautious..
…therefore more likely to crash. This is a thread that comes up in a lot of studies – helmet-free riders are defensive riders.Similarly, studies show “risk compensation” kicks in for bike riders.That is,Helmet riders can be more complacent and take more risks. Ditto drivers. One study shows drivers are more considerate of riders without helmets.
We modern humans do some mighty weird stuff in our efforts to make life more endurable. Take laughter clubs. Or Reiki. Or foil-wrap body masks. Or this weird thing I saw a guy do on the beach where he dive-bombed into the sand and rolled around like a baby, over and over. A sort of new-age capoeira…definitely, weird.
My Dad likes to remind me how weird we are, proclaiming in his day he never bloody stood on his bloody head to find focus. “We just bloody got on with it.” Yeah, Dad, but in your day you didn’t make life inordinately messy and complicated for yourself. We do. Ergo, we stand on our heads to undo the damage.
Up there in the mix of mighty weird stuff is tapping. Have you seen someone tapping? It’s bonkers. It involves tapping your face and repeating out loud highly personal statements about one’s current dysfunctional state of being.
Also called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), tapping could very easily be walloped with the Entirely Ludicrous and Self-Indulgent stamp. But I wouldn’t, now I’ve tried it. Several leading psychologists in America and Australia have recognised, through research and practise, that it is highly effective for treating stress and emotion-based issues. In short, it moves you on without the wallowing.
There’s also something very gentle and generous about the practice. It doesn’t cost big bucks – you can learn how to do it online (just Google it). And EFT practitioners seem to be a very relaxed bunch who discourage codependence. Brett Porter, the open-hearted and very committed guy who taught me, invites me to text when I feel like doing a session. Only if I feel like it. And we do the session on Skype.
So you know, Brett teaches the process around the country, but if you’re interested in trying it to deal with food cravings and over-eating you should definitely try the Food Craving and Tapping Program (CDs and DVDs) he put together with Dr Peta Stapleton at Griffith University – $149 and you can buy it online.
Tapping works a little like acupressure, but you administer it yourself by tapping a sequence of eight points on your face and torso that correspond to the endpoints of your body’s energy meridians.
