This page is an on-going project and will be added to often.
On April 1, 2010, at age 68, my husband was diagnosed with Celiac's Disease. It was no joke, although the nurse did threaten to paint his toe nails while he was under for the stick-a-tube-down-your-throat test. Neither of us had ever heard of such a thing, but we were so relieved just to have an answer to his dropping white blood cell count, that we really didn't care what it entailed. The news that he would be back to better-than-normal within six months of being on a gluten-free diet was all that mattered.
Fortunately Celiac's disease was already becoming more well know in the medical arena and the necessary food for the gluten-free diet had begun to show up in the grocery aisles. Since then it has become a full-blown industry in its own right. However, it still takes some research and experimentation to adjust. Two years ago, ready-made gluten-free foods were quite pricey and about as tasty as cardboard, but that just convinced us of the need to cook everything ourselves. I say "us" because in December of 2011 I went gluten-free also (chocolate does not have wheat in it). A case of "If you can't lick'em, join'em." It just made everything easier, and I had found that I was actually feeling better the more of JB's foods I was eating. This is not to say I was feeling poorly before that, but my digestion just seemed to be less problematic. My whole life I have had intestinal problems and perhaps this diet will provide the relief I am seeking.
First let me explain our life situation. My husband, JB, retired in August of 2008. That year we realized our dream of building and living off the grid, albeit not quite the same as we had planned due to the Wall Street fiasco that year. But the details of that story are told in my blog which I began in June of 2011. It is the ongoing saga of our life up a 4-mile dirt road at an altitude of 3800 feet.
On this page I will attempt to condense most of what we have learned and what I have written in my blog about gluten-free cooking. (See "gluten-free cooking" in my blog index.) It is really much easier than it might seem, especially now with all the new products available. I also have a page entitled "Our Favorite GF Products & Cookbooks" which lists all the flours, mixes and pre-made foods we have tried and prefer.
The key to baking gluten-free is to study all the available kinds of flours and what each one is best for. Then do your own experimenting. The hardest adjustment for me was to get used to the texture of gluten-free baked goods. It is quite different from those baked with wheat flour. Rougher and not as dense. The taste is also different.
The most basic discovery we have made is that Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Flour can be used in almost any recipe instead of wheat flour. When baking cookies, muffins or quick breads, I use 1/2 Bob's Red mill and 1/2 white rice flour. The rice flour seems to make it a little lighter. There is one additive that must be used when baking with gf flour and that is Xanthum gum. The amount per cup of flour is usually 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour, depending upon what you are baking. The amounts for each item (bread, muffins, cookies, etc.) is given right on the bag of flour. This somehow makes up for the lack of gluten.
I also use Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF flour for all my sauces and gravies. There are never any lumps, which was always my problem with wheat flour. My Mother always used cream of mushroom or chicken soups when making casseroles. They seemed to be the standard. But now that I know that gf flour makes such a great white sauce, I always make my own. It is less expensive and I can flavor it however I want. Besides, there is wheat in those soups and other ingredients I would rather not eat.
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