Where I've been, and where should I go

Yellow ceiling, orange wall, purple trim

Two weeks ago a bunch of excuses captured me. I have only just escaped.

First some pictures of what I have been doing instead of writing recipes. My daughter's sixteenth birthday is Friday the 28^th.. I've been helping her redecorate her room in her favorite colors. Wild, man.

purple wall, orange trim, green curtains 

green wall, yellow shelf

Husband, Ken and his Takamine 1987

Second, my husband said what I was afraid he would say about the picture of him I posted in my last blog. “That's not my guitar. That's the mandolin.” The truth is I liked the angle of the shot. So here's my hubby and his Takamine.

Finally, I have been giving some serious thought to my writing. I believe I am a writer. I have believed that about myself since I was eleven. In all that time I have been far more raw talent than educated and/or polished skill. My first love has always been to be a homemaker and I have done that for the past 33 years. I haven't regretted it. I have loved it and I am proud of it.

Ken, his banjos, and his dog, Jack  2009

However, my sons are grown and married, with children of their own. My daughter, after years of consideration has chosen to follow my footsteps into homemaking, is doing an academic/ apprenticeship home education. I have the time to be serious about what I want to do with my writing.

I have this cooking blog, but I tend to focus a lot on memoirs. I have a Tumblr where I post mostly stuff connected to the indie band Louden Swain, an occasional thing or two about the TV show Supernatural and I write about bringing peace to politics. It started as a place for my angst about politics, but I've realized that it wasn't going to bring me civil discussions no matter what angle I chose. Finally, have another blog where I post my fan fiction and other things I'm sure I'm not going to sell.

There isn't any doubt that writing is a part of who I am and from looking at my blogs I see that I lean heavily toward story telling. It is time to learn how to make money at it. The question is, and I'm posing this to my readers, do I:

a) Develop this blog into a professional gluten/allergy-free cooking blog,

b) Get serious with what I am learning about script writing in my fan fiction and have a go at being a writer for TV (a really hard business to get into, but I'm having so much fun),

c) Create a professional blog for my little stories, forsaking all other blogs, or

d) Give up blogging in pursuit of freelance writing?

Corn-free 'Cornbread?'

Have you ever watch a show called, Red Green? Click here for a segment.

I love his line. If a woman don't find you handsome, she should at least find you handy.

I have the blessing of a man I find both handsome and handy.

My husband and I had dated about a month when we decided to get married and did so five months later. A relationship moving that fast leaves a lot, let me repeat, a lot of room for getting to know each other after you're married. Which of course is the worst way to get to know each other, but it can also be filled with wonderful surprises.

One of those surprises came about a month after our wedding. We had decided no one would buy anything over thirty dollars, it was big money back then. As we were walking through Sears he spotted a $40 guitar and beg me to let him buy it. I was a bit stunned. Why would he “suddenly” want one of those. It turned out he had taken guitar lesson and he was actually kind of good at it. I didn't regret that purchase. I didn't even regret it when a couple of years later he took two unemployment checks to buy a Takamine, and then played the same song for 10 hours a day over the next week. It wore my patience a bit, but now, he plays classical and finger style. And, one of the classical songs he plays sounds like two guitars and a bell ringing. It like so cool.

No one is perfect

When it came to my cooking his compliments came with one word adjectives, dinner was remarkable, or incredible, filling. He was analytical about food. He would tell me it wasn't right, and then refuse to tell how it was wrong, for fear I would try to fix it. When my daughter and I had to go gluten-free he remained quiet and patient as I learned this new way of cooking. For a person who can eat gluten, gluten-free food just isn't the same, yet, he remains mostly quiet. As far as I'm concerned his patience and kindness in the matter made him a saint.

Not everything can be fixed with duct tape

Five years ago the cost of gluten-free flours seemed to be so high. He immediately bought me a mill attachment for my Kitchenaide. When my Kitchenaide broke, a few months ago, he rigged the mill to allow me to continue to grind, until we bought a new Kitchenaide. It's a fairly simple mount. If you're interested in making one of your own do a little online research, as a number of people have done similar things and posted their how-to.

Making Your home Feel Like a Hug

These are the things that add up and bring to life a richness which goes beyond our troubles. Placing within us the perceptive that together we can do anything. Bless your spouse by remembering the goods things and keep their heart warm by keeping the kitchen warm with home cooking.

One of our family's favorite foods which brought the comfort and warmth of home was cornbread. I posted a recipe here. Since corn is, now, ruled out I make millet bread. While like all mock recipes it is only reminiscent of cornbread. It has the hearty, homeyness cornbread brings to the table.

Millet Bread

Preheat oven to 400

Grease and flour a 9'x9' pan. (either flour will work, rice will provide a grittiness)

1 c brown rice flour

¾ c millet flour

¼ c course ground millet flour (Don't have course ground? Replace it with a 1/4 cup of millet flour.)

1 tsp guar gum

¼ sugar*

1 Tbs baking powder

½ tsp sea salt

¼ c fat (melted palm shortening)

1 c hot milk (quick almond**)

1 slightly beaten egg

Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Place in wet additions and mix until all dry ingredients are moist. Pour into the baking pan. The batter should be thick, maybe even spongy. Gently spread batter to the corners of the pan a spatula. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. You should see cracks in the surface of the bread, just as you would with a good cornbread.

*if you prefer agave or honey, change the recipe to 2 Tbs of sweetener and 2 Tbs of fat.
**Quick Almond milk is 1/3 c almonds ground in the blender. 1 c of water. First grind the almond into a meal, and then with blender on low/whip let blend for 1 minute. For this millet bread recipe use boiling water.

For a Vegan Version

Omit the egg and whip 2Tbs flax seed meal and 1 Tbs starch with your choice of the hot substitute milk.

Gluten/allergy-free Seasonig blends

I love herbs and spices. The smell of them have a way of reminding you of memories, home, or special events. The smell of peppermint reminds me of late September and walks in the woods, were I grew up. The smell of chili and cumin reminds me of my father cooking a large pot of pollo mole (chicken and gravy.) Let's not forget all those wonderful smells of Christmas. Tell me what season pops into your head when you think of Christmas.

While buying an envelope or bottle of season blends can be quite handy making your own fresh blend can provide moments of creativeness, a blend tweaked to your personal needs, and best of all provide one of those many ingredients that make a house a home of warmth.

The following are some of my favorite blends that meet our households allergy-free needs.

Mexican Seasoning

½ c chili powder

2 T cumin powder

4 tsp each:

salt

onion powder

garlic powder

oregano

2 tsp sugar

To blend either run through a coffee grinder for a few seconds. If you don't have a coffee grinder place ingredients in a tightly closed jar. You will need a jar with twice the room than the space the ingredients are taking up. Now, shake well.

For mild flavor, use 1 tablespoon in a pound of ground beef or 2 cups of beans for vegan. 2 tablespoons for a spicier version.

Italian Seasoning

2 tablespoons each:

Basil

Marjoram

Oregano

Parsley

Thyme

Rosemary

Optional 1 teaspoon of chili pepper flakes.*

Run all item through a food possessor or coffee grinder.

* pepper flakes is a part of the original recipe, but I can't have it so I omit it.

Garlic, onion, and black pepper are stand by flavors in cooking. Since I cant have any of them it became a struggle to find a replacement. I came up with:

Colleens Cooking Concoction

4 tsp Allspice powder

2 tsp Celery seed

2 tsp ground Mustard

1 tsp Thyme leaves

Grind in coffee blender until it is a fine powder.

Only 1-2 tsp are needed in your protein choice.

Pumpkin Spice Mix

Mix the following in a jar:

• 1/3 cup ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg or mace
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground allspice.
  

For pumpkin pie, add 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons of spice mix to your other ingredients.

Finally this is my corn-free baking powder recipe.

Baking Powder

2/3 cup starch (arrowroot,or kuzu)

2/3 cup cream of tartar

1/3 cup baking soda

In a large bowl mix all ingredients well. Being well blended is important to the function and the storage of baking powder. Store in a pint jar. Use it as you would prepackaged baking powder.

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.