Showing posts with label gluten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gluten. Show all posts

Monday, August 27, 2012

Gluten-Free - One More Grain...

I really gave up baking because I have learned that no matter what I try there is no substitute for wheat gluten's properties.

What seems like a lifetime ago, I made all our bread with my own sourdough starter. I added extra gluten and then I wondered why I spent the rest of my time in the bathroom or with muscle and bone pain. I couldn't go to a play or movie because, as did happen once, I might become uncontrollably ill and end up in the ER so dehydrated my veins collapsed and my heart beat became erratic.

When you're ill, what do people give you? Toast, or crackers. When toast and crackers make you ill, people tend to act like having an intolerance, celiac or and allergy is a choice you've made to be difficult.

Well, yes, I could have made the choice to eat gluten (found in wheat (white flour included, non-gf-oats, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, farro, triticale, pasta, beer). And, I could have continued to end up in ER's dehydrated.

And, I could have continued to visit ortthopedic surgeons who could tell me that I was obviously in pain but there was no organic cause. And, then, eventually I may have developed stomach or some other cancer. 

So, yeah, it's a choice I made to be difficult. Because I love bread that dissolves when you put a condiment on it, and rice tortillas that are less than cooperative.  I love not being able to split a pizza with my husband. Or, eat in a bakery where there is a lot of flour in the air.

It's a hoot. 

I am not really bitter, unless I catch this attitude. Mostly I get it from family. Friends are much more understanding and mine are the best, being extra careful to tell me what  can eat and asking me to bring something if necessary.  I don't mind bringing my own stuff as long as I know.

Convention/Conference organizers not so helpful, yet (side cough, Bloggers at BEA, cough); if you aren't going to even attempt to fulfill dietary restrictions you asked about then you should not charge for the food - just saying.  

I am grateful that I have a disease that does not seem to have cause intestinal scarring and which I can control simply by not eating gluten. Improved diagnostics have really shown so many more people have issues.

Jules, GF put this on FB and it inspired my rant. This is funny and the singers are talented so enjoy.
http://youtu.be/k9QbC41oQRo

Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, March 12, 2012

Take the Cake?

Birthday Cake
Image via Wikipedia


A contemporary birthday cake
Image via Wikipedia
Shhh! Don't tell anyone but it's my husband's birthday Wednesday and my BF, Linda's birthday at the end of the month. Linda's ends in a zero so it's a biggie!  I decided to make my friend and my hubs a nice dinner. Her husband is also coming, of course! I'm vacillating between an Italian specialty, bracciole (flank steak stuffed with Italian salumi and egg and cooked in a tomato sauce the day before), lamb or salmon.  

But the real tough choice is the cake.  I used to bake all the time and then had to stop eating gluten.  BFF's favorite cake is angle food, hubs favorite is German chocolate cake.  Neither are gluten free, although they could be made so. Cake flours are low in gluten so cake is adaptable.  I could have either made, or make one, or, or, or I could make a Linzer Torte with an almond base (a favorite for me, which seems wrong!). I'm sure I will figure it out. 

What's your favorite birthday cake or birthday cake memory??






Ancestral Memory - Michael Lewis Miller - Germ...
Ancestral Memory - Michael Lewis Miller - German Chocolate Cake (top) (Photo credit: Marshall Astor - Food Fetishist)



There are lots of pictures of cake online!














Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Emoticon Cake Pops Are Easy to make!



These make me laugh and wish I ate cake more or at all. What else could I make them out of?? You don't even have to bake the cake! It would be easy to make these little vamp heads.




Turns out,  with new super tests from colon biopsy, that it is probable that I am merely gluten intolerant and not Celiac.  This means that Gluten will still make me sick but I can't call it Celiac. Of course, since I haven't eaten it in six years I don't have antibodies so the tests are in question.  There is never an easy answer.



Friday, November 4, 2011

Thanksgiving and Other Disasters
What Are Your Plans?

The First Thanksgiving, painted by Jean Leon G...Image via Wikipedia
This is going to be a self-indulgent rant.  Consider your self forewarned. Oh, if you are my BFF or a member of my family who has somehow ended up here,  STOP reading this now.