Gluten-free Cooking 'Scratch' That

When first told to take gluten out of their diet, most people feel like something you see in the cartoons. The ground beneath them is suddenly gone. They're hanging in mid-air waiting to fall. The struggle to cook gluten-free wasn't like that for me. I had already learned about dealing with a dairy-free diet and I had fell head-over-heels in love with heath food, herbs, and the vegan diet.

During the ninety's I worked in a health food store where I learned about the vegan diet. It felt so good. Veganism naturally reduces gluten, corn, and bake goods from the diet, and incorporates a larger variety of foods into the diet. Unable to stay on the diet I continued to have health issues.

So, for me, the bottom didn't fall out. It more at slowly crumbled. It started with starch. Starch, with its high pectin content, is the quickest, easiest, and seemingly best substitute for gluten. Gluten provides quite a bit of the nutrition and the strength to hold a rise in breads and cakes. Starch's lack of nutrition lead me to develop a number of my recipes free of it. Although, cakes, breads, and cookies can be made without starch, pie crusts, crackers, tortillas, and biscuits don't hold together,crisp up or roll out with it's absence.

It was after embracing starch I hit that emptiness. Potato and corn starches have larger starch molecules. The larger the molecules the better it works as a replacement for gluten. They also tend to be cheapest. Well, what do you do if you're allergic to potatoes and corn. First there is tapioca starch. It's too close to the potato family. Crossover allergy problems happen there. So, scratch that. Arrowroot starch is an excellent corn starch substitute. Turns out, it's not unusual for manufactures to cut potato starch into a batch of arrowroot, if they are a little short during bagging. Well, scratch that. Kuzu starch made from the kudzu plant costs 7USD for 3.5 ounces. Are you going to stick a cup of it in your baking? I think not! Scratch that.

With so many foods scratched from my diet, it has been an ability to cook from 'scratch' that has been the biggest help in my struggle to live with, not only a large number of allergies, but to also put together a family meal which considers other family member's allergy concerns. It helps with remembering the ingredient combinations needed to make a cake rise, or to take out out one nutritious food and replace it with another. It makes me brave enough to can my own food, so I can avoid the starch not listed on a food label, but used to make factory canning machines work smoothly without oil.

What has helped you the most in your struggle with gluten/allergy-free cooking?

This weeks highly recommended website for understanding gluten sensitivity.

The World's Ultimate Resource On: Gluten Free Diets, Gluten Free Research, Gluten Free Help, Celiac Disease, and Gluten Free Recipes. Gluten Free Society

10 Tips and Tricks for the insincere Dieter

1. When adding sugar to coffee, while someone present to observe you, try to keep the conversation lively. This will make it harder for them to know just how many spoonfuls of sugar you've added.
   
   
2. The color of fudge blends well with coffee. No one will know if you use it for creamer.
   
   
3. Know how to spin your grammar. If you have been eating doughnuts all day say, 'This is all I've has all day.
   
   
4. Eat small items like marshmallows and doughnut holes in pairs. If you get caught, you can claim, 'this is only the second one' you've had.
   
   
5. When counting calories, don't tell anyone just how high you've counted up to.
   
   
6. Look for hidden fat. You wouldn't want to miss any.
   
   
7. Satisfy you need for a properly dressed salad. Place extra salad dressing at the bottom of the bowl, underneath the salad greens. While at the table in front of friend impress them by barely sprinkling any dressing on top of your salad. Dig deep and enjoy your delicious salad.
   
   
8. Keep a spray bottle of water near by during your effortless exercise routine. 
   When you hear some one coming soak your skin and intensify your activity.
   
   
9. When eating ice cream, eat straight from the box. You can then honestly say, 'I haven't eaten one dish of ice cream.” Include a note of hurt in your voice.
   
   
10. You've only had one spoonful. Just don't tell them you used the biggest spoon you could find.
    
    
11. Never allow dinning alone go to waste. Enjoy all the food your happy 'little' heart desires.
    
    
12. If this blog post caused you any hearty laughter, you've had your exercise for the day. Go take a break.

I think I'm Returning to this blog

After my husband returned to work, it seemed as if, I would never again find the time to write. I am now taking that time, more and more. Just grabbing it and learning how to do it when others are making noise and bugging me. Well, everyone is old enough to take care of themselves while I take a couple of hours for writing fun.

A lot of events have happened in my life in the past two years. I'm, now, a grandmother of 4, 3 boys and 1 girl. I found that I am allergic to corn and that corn is in everything, worst than gluten. Ive been so busy with life and so disappointed by my health issues, I considered abandoning gluten-free blogging all together.

With billions of blogs and millions of them on the subject of gluten-free cooking, I've often defeated myself by thinking why bother. Well, I love to write and I enjoy cooking, and maybe, just maybe, my experiences can help someone out there on the web. So I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna write.

However, it's going to be about more than gluten-free. I have another blog for fan fiction and other writings, mostly Supernatural fan fiction, though. If you're interested it's The Barefoot Bard.

Celiac Disease and the Redheaded Irish

After I read internet buzz claiming the Celiac population is predominately Irish, I have been looking into my own Irish background. I come from a long line of Irish Catholics that may have been originally Celtic Scotsmen.

One theory says, because of fighting with the English, the Irish had smaller portions of land to farm on. The portions of land being too small to grow enough wheat potatoes, which they could grow enough of, became the primary food in their diet. When the potato blight hit they were forced to switch to wheat. Their bodies no longer producing the enzymes to digest gluten they developed Celiac.

The following theory is a fun idea, however very little research shows the Romans never went as far north as Ireland. The Celts were hunter gatherers. Their digestive system was not used to a heavy grain diet. When the Romans (Italians) moved north they introduce wheat, also, as they returned south to Italy they took Celtic women as wives. This accounts for the Celiac disease in the Italians.

I found the idea fascinating, Celiac disease could potentially be traced through history or heritage. While the post were made by predominately Irish and redheaded persons there were also people who were British, Dutch, German and others holding to the idea that it is the fair skinned Europeans which tend to have this disease. Then one person said that her heritage was from the west of Spain and Puerto Rico. Another individual, although she is redheaded, and has green eyes, was asked by her doctor if she was Middle eastern because the Celiac population is predominately Middle eastern.

The issue needed more research than what I found in internet forums. Much of my information comes from abstracts of articles found on PubMed.gov a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

In the Digestive and Liver Disease (an official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and The Italian Study of the Liver) the authors claim it's a global problem.
July 2004; 492-8
The abstract did not provide any percentages, but presented me with a new fact that this disease is a global problem.

This next article from the Turkish Journal Gastroenterology: official journal of Turkish Society of Gastroenterology said:
The prevalence of Celiac disease in the overall sample of Turkish children (1:111 or 0.9%) in this preliminary study is similar to that reported in European and Middle Eastern countries and the United States.
March 2008; 19(1): 14-21

This shows again, with the statement 'similar to that reported in European and Middle Eastern countries and the United States,' that is considered a global disease.

From Coeliac (European spelling) Society of Ireland website:
screening suggests that between 1 in 200 and 1 in 300 people of northern European extraction have Coeliac. It has been believed for a long time that Irish people have a higher than average risk of coeliac disease. Research in Northern Ireland (reported in 1998) suggests that as many as 1 in 122 individuals have coeliac disease.

Association of European Coeliac Societies website
The most important aim of the day is to make coeliac disease better known in Europe. AOECS represent more than 250000 diagnosed coeliacs from the 5 millions (1 % of the population).
In the past coeliac disease was regarded as a very rare childhood condition, but recent studies have shown that it is more common than previously thought. The incidence rate amongst the European population estimated around 1:100, in some countries (Finland, Hungary) even higher. Nowadays more adults are diagnosed than children and many of whom had no health problems during childhood, but develop symptoms only when adults.

I wanted to see a side by side study. I didn't find one, but I did find the following U.S. Information, regarding CD:

Prevalence of Celiac Disease in At-Risk and Not-At Risk Groups in the United States; A Large Multicenter Study
Given the common European ancestry of a large portion of the US population, it is likely that CD in the united States is more common than currently recognized.
See ARCH Med/VOL. 163 Feb.10, 2003 American Medical association. pg. 287

In the New England Journal of Medicine, Article Review, Medical Progress Celiac Disease:
Celiac disease occurs in nearly 1% of the population in many countries.
October 25, 2007; pg 1731; a pdf file of this article can be obtained at http://www.celiac.org

At the end of my studies I find that that Celiac disease, although genetic, is found in one percent of the world population. There isn't any correlation with having red hair, of being Irish, or being of Europeans decent as internet chatter may lead one to believe. This one percent had only one exception, the Arabic people of Saharawi, found in this following article.

Recenti Progressi in Medicina:
In the Arab people of Saharawi, the prevalence of celiac disease in children is so high (more than 5%) that this condition represents a primary health problem.
July- August 2001; 92 97-8): 446-50

I did this research back in September. The amount of information on the subject of Celiac Disease and the number of better written articles concerning the percentage of population with Celiac disease is far greater then the research I've done. This is a disease that is presently receiving a lot of attention. It is worth it for those with Celiac to do regular research in order to keep up with the changes in the worlds understand of this disease.

Gluten-free 'Butter' Cookies

I mustn't linger here, today. I am afraid something else may happen to pull me away before I'm finished. It's been quite a week, but I think I will recover.

I thought about butter cookies for a couple of weeks. They are a traditional Christmas cookies in my husband's family. I have put together a recipe I am very pleased with and want very much to share it. They are light crispy and very much like real cookies.

Without further adieu:

Butter Cookies

Make 3 dozen

Blend together:

3/4 c. brown rice flour

¼ c. tapioca flour

½ millet flour

½ c. almond flour*

1 c. white sugar

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. sea salt

2 tsp. guar gum

Add and mix well:

1 tsp. vanilla

5 Tbs. coconut oil or shortening

5 Tbs. butter or butter substitute

These cookies spread when baking so place small spoonfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Because of the way this dough spreads it is not worth your time to use cookie cutters on it. See the picture to the right? That's a star.

*If you cannot have nuts try flax seed meal instead of almond. Because of flax's thickening tendencies cut the amount of guar gum in half.

Waffles! or maybe not.

I've been thinking about writing a blog post about waffles for some time. I receive a waffle iron for my birthday back in September. I was excited about the idea of doing more than pancakes as a substitute for bread. Sometimes I would open the waffle iron to find a perfect waffle. With the next batch I would open the iron to find not my idea of a good waffle. See picture to the right.

I thought I, finally, came up with a really good waffle recipe, but I g

ot the notion to experiment with the effects of almond meal and flax seed meal on the recipe. This is where I learned to use almond meal or flax seed meal, not both, in a recipe. Also that flax seed meal doesn't need as much guar gum as almond meal. It was like peeking into a treasure box every time I opened the waffle iron was it going to be a crispy waffle or was it going to be a pile of not waffles.

So, although I went to bed Monday evening with good intentions of w

riting about waffles the next morning, I woke up to feeling not up to par. In the end I rested on Tuesday with the intent of writing today. When I woke up this morning all I could think about was all the things I had to do that didn't have anything to do with writing and how that this is my writer's group night and I'm not ready for it. So laundry or blogging or something anything thrown together for my writer's group, which is a bad thing to do, or grocery shopping, which I have put off for a little to long and I don't want to do because of the weather?

I got up determine to at least write to tell you that like most people I'm so busy on the Holiday season that there is no way I'm going to post until maybe the end of January. Then I remembered something Steve Martin said. He said something to the effect that if you want to get creative quit working. That was something he had done a few years back. He had decided to take a break and in the end he had written several plays and a book or two. I know he is right. My most creative thoughts come when I'm too busy to stop and write them down. With my hands deep into dish water I'll think of something I simply must write down. I'll dry my hands, go write it down, return to my dirty dishes, and plunging my hands into the water with the intend of finishing the job, only to think of something else I simply must write down.

So, while I think that I'm too busy to bother to write today or during the months of December and January, somewhere amid working on Lisa's school records, cleaning the house, tree trimming, and baking a Christmas pie my mind will be loaded with ideas for that next great novel I think I'll probably never finish. Or at least I'll write a blog post or two. So who knows maybe I won't post again this month, but then again maybe I won't be able to help myself and go on a blogging frenzy this month. After all, I thought I was only going to write a paragraph, now I have babbled off five.

For today, I'll leave you with two recipes, one is a good waffle recipe, the other is making the most of my not waffles.

Good waffles

makes 4

blend together:

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup millet flour

¼ cup flax seed meal*

½ teaspoon guar gum*

¼ cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt

add in and mix well:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup water

To cook follow the manufactures directions of your waffle iron.

*You may use almond meal instead, just be sure to increase the guar gum from a 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon.

Flipped Flopped Waffles

(as in flip this flopped waffle into something edible)

Makes two patties

Whip well together:

1 egg

2 tablespoons of (your choice) milk

a dash of cinnamon

½ teaspoon vanilla

Break one waffle into little bits and add to egg mixture. The smaller the bits the better the patties work out. Mix until the waffle bits are well coated. Using a large spoon scoop half the batter onto a hot-greased griddle, then scoop the other half onto the griddle.. You may need to flatten and shape the patties a bit. Each side cooks up in about a minute, otherwise brown each side. Serve hot with syrup on top.

A Gluten-Free Website worth Your time

Amid Curtain washing, rearranging to fit a Christmas tree in the living, dusting things, and having my husband throwing a ball at me so he can play fetch with the dog in the house, I'm popping out a quick blog post.

Who would think tofu, sage, thyme, and pumpkin puree would make a fantastic non-dairy Alfredo sauce?

The Gluten-free Gidget that's who. This is the only cheese alternative recipe I have found that did not include yeast. Her Pumpkin Alfredo Pasta with Kale recipe is so delicious and such a wonderful surprise that after cooking up some of it I just had to share it with you. I also thought I would pour some of this sauce over green beans instead of pasta and kale. Is was good, but it didn't taste much like green bean casserole. I think I'll pick her brain on how to make a sauce taste like mushroom soup without the mushrooms.

I didn't tell my husband the sauce was made from pumpkin puree, and tofu, or sage, which he hates. He is my picky eater, yet he thought the sauce was good. He still has no idea what is in the sauce. I think I'll keep it that way, so I don't spoil it for him. My teenage daughter loves the sauce and even thinks the kale and pasta part was good. So I have a new standard to cook with and experiment with.

I love digging around Gluten-free Gidget, or Katrina's blog. It is has great pictures, it well written, many of the vegetarian food dishes will work with my family, and and the food ideas help me move from foods I can't have to to good choices and good substitutes I can have. To check out Gluten-free Gidget's blog and and her fabulous Pumpkin Alfredo Pasta with Kale click here. Check it often, she blogs more frequently than I do.