Steve, Grainlady posts a lot on the Cooking Forum. You might have better luck catching her attention over there.

Agreed pretty much across the board, to avoid dangerous fats, eliminate processed foods. Just start there. It is that simple. Starting there, and using whole foods, you've got many choices. Knowing where your food is sourced, less hands involved, you will find pure, less processed products. Many of the diets studied around the world that dcarch refers to are most likely sourced close to home. Probably eating local produce and using oils processed nearby? A much different diet than vegetable oils here. Those that use olive oils know how to cook with them. A low heat or med heat is fine using olive oil. Save the first pressing for dressings or a drizzle. A bit of heat will change the fresh flavor so save it for later off heat. The second pressing is lighter in flavor and color and better for cooking. Can handle a higher heat. Really depends on your cooking style. If you blast your veggies with high heat, most oils will burn and smoke. My coconut oils are always solid. I warm them and add other oils to keep it fluid. I rarely use high heat for anything but water to boil. And baking bread. A slow and low saute just needs a tbsp or less for a mirepoix and then broth to steam tender veggies or a slow roasting in the oven with even less oil. I just don't buy into the 'capsule on-line' supplement oils and their health claims. Raw and fresh food oils are in many things. Cold pressed/expeller oils are so easily available that it doesn't make sense to buy oils that use heat processed and chemically treated extraction methods. Use real butter over the cheap spreads like margarine and veg oils. Even some butter tastes weird and rancid. Buy quality organic and just use less. Research the source, buy local/fresh. Or a brand that you and others trust. It really does taste so much better. We don't use that much butter but have it in the freezer. We prefer good olive oils infused with herbs and garlic for fresh warm bread. Butter with eggs and toast or waffles with maple syrup. Just personal preference. A cod/fish cake, crab cake, i have to use good butter. I like the flavor for some things. No reason to change the way you cook completely and avoid oils. Or using gobs of butter on everything more out of habit rather than flavor.

Before going gluten-free, I nearly always used a 100% extraction - medium-fine grind (Nutrimill) for bread. I used an overnight sponge, which softens the bran, for making 100% whole wheat flour yeast bread. That is another way to lighten the loaf. Using a soaked flour method (Sue Gregg or "Nourishing Traditions") is another method to lighten the loaves because it softens the bran. Tempering the grain before milling, as well as bolting the flour, is yet one more method. The only tempered wheat I've worked with was called "heavy-bran" (from a local stone mill), and it was more like oatmeal. I developed several recipes for the mill with this product, but they decided not to continue production due to expense and hassle. I would sift the bran from flour milled for making "cake" flour (a 3:1 mix of soft white wheat and whole oat groats OR spelt), although softer wheat doesn't bolt as efficiently as hard wheat. I don't own a standard flour "sifter", but I use a series of food-grade mesh sieves I've collected over the years for bolting. I'm not even sure of the micron size of them. You can get sets that have 3 (or more) sizes to the set. Start with a large one and continue with smaller ones until you have achieved the extraction rate and particle size you'd like. If you make your own cereal or cereal blends for making cooked cereal (Cream of Wheat, Rice, Barley, Rye, 5-grain, 7-grain, etc.), that's another place you will want to sift the finer particles from the mixture before cooking it. If you don't sift it out, you will end up with "glue" for cooked cereal. Same thing if you make cracked wheat or bulgur. It is my understanding that flour is generally in the range of 35-70 micron opening mesh. Naturally, it depends on the grind from your mill. If you start with a coarse grind, you will get different results than if you mill your grain on a medium or fine grind. You will get a finer grind on many mills if you run the grain through on a coarse grind, then run the coarse flour through on a finer grind a second time. Yet one more option. I'm not sure what the sizes are for the various grinds of corn, but I might have something in my files and will post it if I find it. The finer the cornmeal -- the texture of the cornbread will be more cake-like. This would be the "coarse" setting used for milling cornmeal on the Nutrimill. You can't get a true coarse grind using an impact mill. I use a Corn Mill - steel burrs - for coarse grinding. Coarse cornmeal will be coarse and heavy when used for cornbread. Neither is right or wrong - just a choice. ;-) Sorry I couldn't be more help.... -Grainlady

I'll dry any kind of tomato I happen to be growing, but I generally only grow small varieties of tomatoes. The more "meaty" varieties of tomatoes are preferred for drying. You can dry both ripe or green tomatoes. Rehydrate those green tomato slices in boiling water, dredge them and fry in melted butter in skillet. Fried Green Tomatoes for New Year's Day along with those Black-eyed Peas. ;-) It's amazing how many dried tomatoes you can stuff into a quart jar. You can also remove the skin and seeds and blend the tomatoes in a blender, add a little Fruit Fresh, and dry it on the Fruit Leather Sheets. Cut the sheets into squares and you'll find they add a lot of flavor to soups and stews as they incorporate into the liquid. You can also make tomato paste or tomato sauce by adding the tomato leather to hot water. Make a quick pasta sauce. How to: Peel tomatoes by dipping in boiling water for 1-minute, then in cold water for 1 minute. Slip off skins and cut out cores, or just the stem end - your choice. Cut into 1/8-inch slices, the seeds will generally fall out during drying. I also cut them into 1/4-inch cubes to dry. Drain them well before drying. It will help cut drying time down. I'll give the tomato cubes a gentle spin in my salad spinner to extract both moisture and seeds. I dry tomatoes in a dehydrator. It gets too humid here for good drying outdoors. Make sure your "old window screen" ISN'T galvanized, which is coated with cadmium or zinc. These metals can oxidize and leave harmful residue on the food. Also avoid copper and aluminum screening. Copper destroys vitamin C and increases oxidation. Aluminum tends to discolor and corrode. Use stainless steel, teflon-coated fiberglass and plastic screening. Sun drying isn't recommended for vegetables (other than vine-dried beans). Vegetables are low in sugar and acid, which increases the risks for food spoilage. Favorable conditions for drying outdoors - minimum temperature of 85-degrees F (with higher temperatures being better) and humidity below 60%. Be sure to bring them in overnight. The cooler night temperatures can cause condensation and add moisture back into the food and slow the drying process. This can contribute to bacteria growth (Salmonella and E. Coli). Raise the screens off the ground (saw horses) and place them over concrete when possible (or over a sheet of aluminum - the reflection of the sun on the metal increases the drying temperature). Screens placed close to the ground can actually cause the food to absorb moisture from the grass and ground. Add a fan if possible. This will help keep insects off the food, and air circulation is as important as the temperature. Food dried outdoors also has an increased chance for insects. All food dried outdoors needs to be pasteurized and cooled to room temperature before placing it into storage. To pasteurize the food, place it in a preheated 160-degree F oven for 30-minutes. An alternative is to freeze the food for 48-hours to kill any eggs from possible insect contamination. TWO screens are suggested for drying food outdoors. One screen holds the food and the other one to protect the food from "critters". Home dehydrated foods are not considered "long-storage" foods. You can extend the storage time by placing it in canning jars and vacuum-sealing the jars with a FoodSaver, or adding an oxygen absorber. You can also freeze the dehydrated food for longer storage. Recommended storage times for home dehydrated foods range from 4-months to 1-year. The food quality is affected by heat, light and storage temperature. Most dried fruits can be stored for one year at 60-degrees F, six months at 80-degrees F. Vegetables have about half the shelf-life of fruits. Vacuum-seal fruits or vegetables and keep it in the dark in a cool storage temperature and you can double the shelf-life. Remember to package your dehydrated food in small containers. Each time you open a container of food, it will draw moisture in from the air and that can cause the food to rehydrate and even mold. I package slices of dried apples in small snack-size storage bags, then place them in a 1/2-gallon jar and vacuum-seal it for storage. When it's moved from storage to the pantry, I replace the canning lid with a Universal Lid (which is easy to open and re-close). Now when I want sliced apples for a snack or for adding to muffins, I can quickly get one or two packets without the moisture getting to the entire contents of the jar. Not all foods dry properly at one temperature, that's why an electric dehydrator with a thermostat and a fan is a better choice for home dehydrating. You'll have a safer product than using the sun. The link below has a LOT of great information. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: New Home Drying Recommendations