Wow, it has been 3 months since I have posted, and what an interesting 3 months it has been. Soon after my quiche post, I discovered I have Celiac. It was a huge shock to me, and not one I would ever of expected. I went in for my annual check-up, and found out a week later I had to cut gluten from my life.
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, and many oats. I was just floored! I have always loved to bake and had a stomach that could handle anything (or so I thought), so this was really devastating news.
I decided to wait until after Zoë's birthday, so I could enjoy pizza and the elaborate princess cake we made her. The day after her birthday, I went completely gluten-free. I cleaned out our kitchen, got rid of possibility contaminated items, like my Krups Belgian waffle iron, strainers, cookie sheets, silicon measuring spoons and cups.
It was tough at first, and I shed many tears. I mean, I love baking, I eat Triscuits like they are going out of style, so how could this be possible??
I bought a few gluten-free cookies and such, and was even more depressed by how awful they tasted.
Then one day, my great friend, Julie, and I checked out Rose's Bakery in Evanston, and for the first time since my diagnosis had a huge smile on my face! Everything looked amazing and was 100 & gluten-free! I couldn't decide so I took some of everything to bring home and test out with the family. I brought home eclairs, cup cakes, snicker doodles, sprouted bread, granola (with certified gluten-free oats), cheesecake brownie. It was all amazing, and honestly better than any gluten versions I have had.
Since then, I started feeling better and became more adventurous and started baking again, but this time gluten-free. Cooking meals is the easy part, since I have always cooked from scratch, nothing really changed, except the type of pasta I am using in pasta dishes. And let me say, my favorite by far is Tinkyada...you can't even tell the difference!
Baking is the tricky one, since it seems like rocket science when substituting alternate flours for wheat flour. You can just say....replace rice flour for wheat/white flour 1:1. You have to use a flour, a starch and binder. So, just to replace wheat/white flour, you would need to use brown rice flour, combined with potato starch, combined with xanthum gum. Sounds exhausting, right?
In these 3 months, I have been learning, and found some of my favorite stores to find some of these hard to find ingredients. Woodman's and Whole Foods (not to forget, their web site has awesome recipes!) have become my favorite places to shop...and dangerous too. Why does Whole Foods really have to be so expensive? Why can I not leave without spending at least $50?!
I am trying to build up my baking confidence, and do everything from scratch again, but in the meantime, I am in LOVE with the gluten-free bakery Whole Foods! It is such an indulgence to buy from there, but SO good! I buy their prairie bread, pie crusts, cookies, muffins, apple pie and hamburger buns, and they are all so much better than the gluten-filled alternatives!
It is funny, I was never a real bread person before finding out I couldn't have "regular" bread, I would usually pick out the middle part, and leave my bread in pieces in my plate. Maybe this was trying to tell me something? And now that I have discovered gluten-free bread, I am eating more bread than ever, because it is so good! I always felt the bread in the bread aisle was just styrofoam full of preservatives, and it had no appeal to me at all. But the good bread..is the stuff in the freezer section, and that is where the gluten-free bread is found as well, and those breads are the good stuff!
Now, I have toast every morning with butter and honey!
I am definitely still learning, and there is so much out there to learn, but have discovered some great resources and people on the way.
From here on out all of my recipes, as my house, will be gluten-free and just as tasty!
**The quiche pictured is using the same recipe is the last post, except using asparagus and cheddar as the filing, and a pie crust from Whole Foods, and wow, was it good!!
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