The First Flub

The first few days of eating gluten-free resulted in my first flub.  

 I went to the store and found this pizza in our grocery store freezer section. It was a plain cheese pizza, and while it was half again what I would pay for a regular frozen pizza, I was excited to try it out.

I decided that I should "dress it up right" and have my favorite Hawaiian pizza instead.  "See, I can have it all!" Unfortunately, this was before I realized that the world puts gluten in everything, including meat sometimes.  I had a reaction to the ham and felt all sorts of crappy.  Lesson learned: processed anything (including meat) may contain gluten and needs to be checked.
Now to clarify, the problem was not the pizza (I've had it many times since and loved it), but my additions to the pizza. In the months since, I've learned that limited choices are not the worst thing; at least with said choices I can feel confident that I'm safe.

The First Recipe Tweak

This was my very first attempt at tweaking a beloved recipe to make it gluten-free.  I started really basic with substituting cornstarch for wheat flour.  It made the sauce just a slightly different texture (ever so slightly more gelatinous) and much thicker upon reheating the leftovers but aside from that wasn't noticeable (nothing a little extra broth couldn't fix). Now that I've been at this a few months and have a fully stocked gluten-free kitchen, I would instead swap my favorite gluten-free all purpose flour (Pamela's Artisan All-Purpose Flour) for the wheat flour.  Either way though, this ends up being delicious and really unnoticeably gluten-free.

Beef Stew
barely adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

1 (3-lb) boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes)
3 Tbsp oil
2 onions, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste (check that it's gluten free)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup red wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (Swanson brand is gluten free)
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
4 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
hot mashed potatoes

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Dry beef with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a oven proof casserole over medium-high heat until smoking. Brown beef in batches (as avoid overcrowding) for about 10 minutes a batch and set aside. 
2. Add remaining oil over medium heat and add onions.  Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in wine, scrapping up an browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Add broth, thyme, bay leaves, and beef (with all the juices).  Bring up to a simmer then cover and place in oven to bake for 1 hour.
3. Stir in potatoes and carrots and return to oven to cook until beef is tender (about 1 more hour).
4. Remove from oven and bring to a boil on stove. Mix cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water until smooth.  Add mixture to boiling stew and stir.  Allow to return to boil for approximately 5 minutes or until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.  Serve over a layer of hot mashed potatoes. 

The New Year and a Reboot

It is the beginning of 2015 and like most people, I have some goals.  I want to exercise more, read more, and communicate better with others. One of my goals is to revive my food blog.  I haven't used it a lot but as I look back over it, I am able to watch my journey as a cook.  It's kind of cool to be able to see the recipes I was trying in a particular point in our life.  It's also cool to see, after my son was diagnosed with multiple food allergies, that I was able to adapt and learn and still provide our family with nourishing and tasty meals. In restarting my blog I'm hoping to document and allow others to reenter my cooking journey as I embark on my next cooking adventure.

A little over a week ago, I was diagnosed with celiac sprue, otherwise know as celiac disease.  I will be heading to a dietician on Monday and then onto a gastroenterologist on Thursday so I hope to know much more about celiac disease after those appointments.  Until then, here's a summary of what I know about celiac disease.  It means that my body responds to any gluten (a protein in wheat, rye, barley) by attacking the lining of my small intestine.  I'm sure there is more nuance there and I fully intend to correct this information when I understand it more clearly. They treat this disorder, not with medication, but by eliminating gluten from the diet.  With a gluten-free diet, my gut should heal and my symptoms subside.  Unfortunately, this gluten-free diet must be followed for life because there is no known cure for celiac disease.

The entire concept of gluten-free for life is overwhelming.  I rarely eat Oreos but the concept of never eating an Oreo ever again is a little difficult to wrap my mind around. I really enjoy making and eating food.  My identity is wrapped up in being a person who really enjoys trying new recipes and prides herself on providing really good food to her family and guests.  Gluten-free seems to throw a wrench in that.  Over the last couple of years I've learned that I often express love for others by making them food.  Will I be able to continue that?  I'm uncertain but I hope so.

In the next few months and years, I hope to master this disorder.  I hope to find ways to adapt recipes I already love and find new recipes that my family and I can truly enjoy.  I hope to get to the point that gluten-free for life isn't such a big deal.  That's the goal and I hope to use this blog to get there.  So away we go!