Just wanted to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who are paying attention to all my whining about this GF thing and have been sending me links to web sites and blogs about GF foods, restaurants/bakeries, and blogs.
Just today, one friend sent me a link to the blog Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, which led me to another called Four Chickens. Both of these bloggers appear to be awesome GF bakers publishing some really fantastic-looking recipes! (Now I just have to find the obscure flours they use in their homemade GF all-purpose flour blends and I'm set!)
Also, for lunch today, I tried the Wildwood Cafe that several of you have recommended. Got a hot turkey and provolone on foccacia bread that was SOOOO delicious. I even bought a set of 4 buns to take home for other sandwiches or for burgers! Very exciting.
Finally, I tried 3 of the recipes from the Year of Slow-cooking blog/website that a couple of you pointed me to. (The author cooks GF but the recipes are written to cook either way). 2 of them were fantastic (the carnitas and the sweet mustard roast) and the third (orange chicken) had potential but my timing was off and it ended up overcooking (she indicated 6 hours on low and apparently she meant it...).
It is wonderful to know people are thinking of me when they see these things and go out of their way to take the time to drop me a line about them. Thank you all for all the support! Please keep the info coming as you find it -- there is a lot available but I don't necessarily stumble across the same resources you do!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Getting My Just Desserts
It's highly likely that, as I write this blog, I will dwell rather heavily on the topic of dessert foods. I admit, I do have a sweet tooth, but before anyone starts thinking that I'm a little piglet who spent all my pre-GF days gorging on sweet stuff, let me assure you, that wasn't the case. The thing is, though, that with a GF diet, most of the sweet stuff we all take for granted is right out the window!
Think of your grocery store. You know that section with the Chips Ahoys, Oreos, Nilla Wafers, and even Animal Crackers? Don't bother stopping there. The baking aisle with the cake, brownie, muffin, and cookie dough mixes? Not for you. How about the refrigerated section with the break and bake cookie doughs? Nope. The bakery's baked goods? Not a chance. Hostess section with its Ding Dongs, Little Debbie Snack Cakes, Honey Buns and Donettes? Don't even look! Freezer section? Can't eat the pies, cakes, eclairs, etc. there.
Okay -- just bake from scratch. Oh wait... you can't use regular (wheat) flour. And unfortunately, as I have discovered, substituting a GF "all purpose flour" blend doesn't always work (example: my Nestle Tollhouse Cookies that melted flat and turned out like "lace" cookies -- FAIL).
So what's left? Luckily, there are some mainstream non-baked sweets I can still enjoy. These include ice cream (as long as I avoid the flavors, like Blue Bell Chocolate, that contain gluten), pudding (Jello brand is safe), and some chocolate bars (Hershey bars and kisses are fine as are Reese's cups, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth. Milky Way, Twix, Kit Kat and Nestle Crunch, though, are out).
So that's the deal. It's not that I'm wanting to eat them non-stop. It's just that so many of the options are out that I really want to find a way to replace at least some of the basics -- brownies, chocolate chip cookies, cake. This means either finding pre-packaged GF options and mixes or learning to bake from scratch with GF flours (or both).
Stay tuned for updates on this quest!
Think of your grocery store. You know that section with the Chips Ahoys, Oreos, Nilla Wafers, and even Animal Crackers? Don't bother stopping there. The baking aisle with the cake, brownie, muffin, and cookie dough mixes? Not for you. How about the refrigerated section with the break and bake cookie doughs? Nope. The bakery's baked goods? Not a chance. Hostess section with its Ding Dongs, Little Debbie Snack Cakes, Honey Buns and Donettes? Don't even look! Freezer section? Can't eat the pies, cakes, eclairs, etc. there.
Okay -- just bake from scratch. Oh wait... you can't use regular (wheat) flour. And unfortunately, as I have discovered, substituting a GF "all purpose flour" blend doesn't always work (example: my Nestle Tollhouse Cookies that melted flat and turned out like "lace" cookies -- FAIL).
So what's left? Luckily, there are some mainstream non-baked sweets I can still enjoy. These include ice cream (as long as I avoid the flavors, like Blue Bell Chocolate, that contain gluten), pudding (Jello brand is safe), and some chocolate bars (Hershey bars and kisses are fine as are Reese's cups, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth. Milky Way, Twix, Kit Kat and Nestle Crunch, though, are out).
So that's the deal. It's not that I'm wanting to eat them non-stop. It's just that so many of the options are out that I really want to find a way to replace at least some of the basics -- brownies, chocolate chip cookies, cake. This means either finding pre-packaged GF options and mixes or learning to bake from scratch with GF flours (or both).
Stay tuned for updates on this quest!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Recap 2: The Pancake Ordeal
So perhaps this was a bit of an over-reaction, but I just about lost it when I made my first batch of GF pancakes. Many GF folks reading this will go "Huh? There are tons of pancake options that are good! What was the problem?" The problem was that I was all set to enjoy some Bisquick-style pancakes made with something else that was magically going to mimic them exactly... except they didn't.
My first GF pancake attempt was the Saturday or Sunday after my initial diagnosis using Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix. Sounds promising, right? I thought so -- especially since many people raved about how great they were on websites, forums, product review pages, etc. So I followed the recipe on the bag exactly, prepared my griddle just so, and cooked them up. Oh... I forgot to mention that the mix contains these little dark brown flecks from one of the ingredients (can't remember what off the top of my head, but they even have a note on the bag so you don't think that's a problem when you first see it), so they look a little different even in batter stage. The appearance of the cooked pancake is also slightly unusual, but not totally weird, so I keep an open mind and my high expectations. My verdict: they're edible, but they're nowhere NEAR tasting like a Bisquick pancake (and they're definitely not as good to my taste buds). If I had any notion of being able to switch the whole family to my new pancake recipe, this was NOT going to do the trick. Deflation...
So with a busy week and plenty of other new things to figure out, I set the pancake issue to the side (though it continued to poke at my mind). By Friday, I was just mad as hell that pancakes weren't a no brainer and I was really craving some. So after the kids left for school, I got out my griddle, mixing bowls, and recipe books (including my Better Homes and Gardens book and one of the new GF cookbooks I'd bought).
First, I tried the Bob's Red Mill GF Pancake Mix. Someone else who hadn't cared for Pamela's said her kids liked BRM. Again, it was a decent pancake but I just didn't like it -- probably because it still didn't taste like "regular" pancakes to me. No worries. I had recipe books to go to -- if the mixes don't work for me, let's cook for real!
Next, I tried to substitute a GF Food For Life All Purpose Flour Blend for the wheat flour in the BHG recipe. I'd used the BHG recipe before when we were out of Bisquick, and that flour blend had worked well as a flour substitute in a roux for a cheese sauce earlier in the week, so I figured it might do great. Um... GROSS is all I can say about that batch of pancakes. Not even close to edible. Threw out the cooked ones after attempting to eat half of one and rinsed the bowl.
By now, I was getting mildly upset and worried. But not to panic -- I still had a very promising cookbook left to go: You Won't Believe It's Not Gluten Free. This cookbook's organization is really interesting -- the author includes 3-4 recipes per item she's making, all using different flours or combinations of flours. The pancakes offered 4 recipes: a rice flour, oat flour, potato flour, and corn starch option. Based on the taste-tester opinion info included on each recipe, I had the highest hopes for the rice and corn ones to meet my flavor needs. I did the rice first b/c the feedback from her testers said they tasted "like pancakes", which is all I wanted! It worked really well! My pancakes don't usually call for sugar or vanilla, so they tasted different, but not in a bad way. The texture was a bit lighter than "normal", but all in all, I was very happy.
Since I was already cooking, I then went ahead and did the corn recipe from that book. Again, it called for sugar and vanilla, so they weren't exactly like my old ones, but they were definitely pancakes and didn't have any strong grain flavor that my palette found off-putting. I decided the corn ones were a bit drier than the rice ones, so I preferred the rice. In the end, I ate some of each of those and put the rest in the fridge to (a) taste test w/the kids and (b) see how they reheated.
When I reheated some the next day for the kids, Erin preferred the rice (and actually said she thought they might be better than Bisquick) and Matt preferred the corn. Figures they'd not agree, huh? I thought the rice ones reheated better (and in some ways were better reheated than they were hot off the griddle on day 1)!!
Since that day, I've done the rice flour pancakes one other time and they were very yummy.
Just this morning, I decided to give Pamela another try at the pancakes. Though I like the rice ones, it's kind of a pain to have to mix a bunch of ingredients together in the morning when you're in a hurry (mix, milk, eggs is much easier than 7-8 ingredients whose mixing order matters). This time, I just substituted Pamela's into my Bisquick recipe instead of using the Pamela's bag recipe. I liked them MUCH better. Then after the first batch of 4, I tried adding some vanilla to the batter. Even better! They've kinda got a whole-grain flavor to them and the vanilla seemed to soften that.
So while I'll still do the rice or corn pancakes when I have the time to spend, it's nice to know I can whip some up in a hurry on a school day if I want to.
Ahhhh... Pancake success!
My first GF pancake attempt was the Saturday or Sunday after my initial diagnosis using Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix. Sounds promising, right? I thought so -- especially since many people raved about how great they were on websites, forums, product review pages, etc. So I followed the recipe on the bag exactly, prepared my griddle just so, and cooked them up. Oh... I forgot to mention that the mix contains these little dark brown flecks from one of the ingredients (can't remember what off the top of my head, but they even have a note on the bag so you don't think that's a problem when you first see it), so they look a little different even in batter stage. The appearance of the cooked pancake is also slightly unusual, but not totally weird, so I keep an open mind and my high expectations. My verdict: they're edible, but they're nowhere NEAR tasting like a Bisquick pancake (and they're definitely not as good to my taste buds). If I had any notion of being able to switch the whole family to my new pancake recipe, this was NOT going to do the trick. Deflation...
So with a busy week and plenty of other new things to figure out, I set the pancake issue to the side (though it continued to poke at my mind). By Friday, I was just mad as hell that pancakes weren't a no brainer and I was really craving some. So after the kids left for school, I got out my griddle, mixing bowls, and recipe books (including my Better Homes and Gardens book and one of the new GF cookbooks I'd bought).
First, I tried the Bob's Red Mill GF Pancake Mix. Someone else who hadn't cared for Pamela's said her kids liked BRM. Again, it was a decent pancake but I just didn't like it -- probably because it still didn't taste like "regular" pancakes to me. No worries. I had recipe books to go to -- if the mixes don't work for me, let's cook for real!
Next, I tried to substitute a GF Food For Life All Purpose Flour Blend for the wheat flour in the BHG recipe. I'd used the BHG recipe before when we were out of Bisquick, and that flour blend had worked well as a flour substitute in a roux for a cheese sauce earlier in the week, so I figured it might do great. Um... GROSS is all I can say about that batch of pancakes. Not even close to edible. Threw out the cooked ones after attempting to eat half of one and rinsed the bowl.
By now, I was getting mildly upset and worried. But not to panic -- I still had a very promising cookbook left to go: You Won't Believe It's Not Gluten Free. This cookbook's organization is really interesting -- the author includes 3-4 recipes per item she's making, all using different flours or combinations of flours. The pancakes offered 4 recipes: a rice flour, oat flour, potato flour, and corn starch option. Based on the taste-tester opinion info included on each recipe, I had the highest hopes for the rice and corn ones to meet my flavor needs. I did the rice first b/c the feedback from her testers said they tasted "like pancakes", which is all I wanted! It worked really well! My pancakes don't usually call for sugar or vanilla, so they tasted different, but not in a bad way. The texture was a bit lighter than "normal", but all in all, I was very happy.
Since I was already cooking, I then went ahead and did the corn recipe from that book. Again, it called for sugar and vanilla, so they weren't exactly like my old ones, but they were definitely pancakes and didn't have any strong grain flavor that my palette found off-putting. I decided the corn ones were a bit drier than the rice ones, so I preferred the rice. In the end, I ate some of each of those and put the rest in the fridge to (a) taste test w/the kids and (b) see how they reheated.
When I reheated some the next day for the kids, Erin preferred the rice (and actually said she thought they might be better than Bisquick) and Matt preferred the corn. Figures they'd not agree, huh? I thought the rice ones reheated better (and in some ways were better reheated than they were hot off the griddle on day 1)!!
Since that day, I've done the rice flour pancakes one other time and they were very yummy.
Just this morning, I decided to give Pamela another try at the pancakes. Though I like the rice ones, it's kind of a pain to have to mix a bunch of ingredients together in the morning when you're in a hurry (mix, milk, eggs is much easier than 7-8 ingredients whose mixing order matters). This time, I just substituted Pamela's into my Bisquick recipe instead of using the Pamela's bag recipe. I liked them MUCH better. Then after the first batch of 4, I tried adding some vanilla to the batter. Even better! They've kinda got a whole-grain flavor to them and the vanilla seemed to soften that.
So while I'll still do the rice or corn pancakes when I have the time to spend, it's nice to know I can whip some up in a hurry on a school day if I want to.
Ahhhh... Pancake success!
Recap 1: Google is my friend, contaminated grocery items, and GF-friendly restaurants
So, as promised, I'm going to recap the first couple of weeks of this journey.
During the first week (okay -- let's be honest -- I'm still doing this), I spent an inordinate amount of time on my computer googling every food-related thing I could think of (from restaurant names to brands of groceries to types of food items) and appending "gluten free" to each search. Through this, I found out more than you'd ever want to know (but lots of stuff I needed to know) about the non-obvious, hidden gluten in things.
Some examples of gluten-containing products that by all rights should be Gluten Free (GF):
So in our household, we have eaten out on Friday evenings for practically forever. So I get this diagnosis on a Thursday and all of a sudden that's not a no-brainer! Italian seems like it's mostly out. Much Mexican has flour tortillas or sauces that contain flour. Burgers? sure, w/o the bun! Add to that the surprise element that some restaurants dust their fries or tortilla chips in flour before they fry them -- say bye bye to those (and anything else fried in the same oil with them)!
But then there's the good news -- many restaurants, both here in Austin and around the country, either have printed GF menus or have knowledgeable management and/or staff who can help me order safely! We chose to start with Matt's El Rancho on that first Friday, where the word was that I needed to talk to a manager. So I asked when we got there and they sent Heather to my table to help me out that first evening. WOW! She knew what she was doing!!! Apparently they have several GF clients, at least one of whom goes in weekly. Heather has apparently worked with them extensively and knows exactly what has to be done to modify the food prep to make it GF. Plus their chips are fried in oil that is only used for their chips (no flour dusting either), so they're always safe. I have to say goodbye to any sauces other than queso and the table salsa on my enchiladas/tamales, and I can only have the whole beans (not refried), but that's not bad! She says other managers know what to do too, but I haven't had to find out b/c both times we've been there since my diagnosis, she's been there and helped me out.
So here's a preliminary list of restaurants I know about for me to get started:
During the first week (okay -- let's be honest -- I'm still doing this), I spent an inordinate amount of time on my computer googling every food-related thing I could think of (from restaurant names to brands of groceries to types of food items) and appending "gluten free" to each search. Through this, I found out more than you'd ever want to know (but lots of stuff I needed to know) about the non-obvious, hidden gluten in things.
Some examples of gluten-containing products that by all rights should be Gluten Free (GF):
- Crispix (rice on one side, corn on the other -- why wheat/barley anywhere??)
- Rice Krispies
- Corn Flakes
- Nestle Crunch bars (chocolate, crisp rice -- why did they add barley malt?? At least their Butterfinger and Baby Ruth bars are fine)
- some jarred spaghetti sauces (others are fine)
- many brands of canned chicken/beef/etc broth
- some brands of yogurt
- soy sauce -- it's from Asia -- they didn't even have wheat till Europeans brought it there!
- some salad dressings
- Pringles -- sure, they're majorly synthetic but they're POTATO chips!
- almost all (if not all) cans of cream of anything soup -- maybe this isn't unreasonable b/c they do need something to thicken it with but it's no less irritating
So in our household, we have eaten out on Friday evenings for practically forever. So I get this diagnosis on a Thursday and all of a sudden that's not a no-brainer! Italian seems like it's mostly out. Much Mexican has flour tortillas or sauces that contain flour. Burgers? sure, w/o the bun! Add to that the surprise element that some restaurants dust their fries or tortilla chips in flour before they fry them -- say bye bye to those (and anything else fried in the same oil with them)!
But then there's the good news -- many restaurants, both here in Austin and around the country, either have printed GF menus or have knowledgeable management and/or staff who can help me order safely! We chose to start with Matt's El Rancho on that first Friday, where the word was that I needed to talk to a manager. So I asked when we got there and they sent Heather to my table to help me out that first evening. WOW! She knew what she was doing!!! Apparently they have several GF clients, at least one of whom goes in weekly. Heather has apparently worked with them extensively and knows exactly what has to be done to modify the food prep to make it GF. Plus their chips are fried in oil that is only used for their chips (no flour dusting either), so they're always safe. I have to say goodbye to any sauces other than queso and the table salsa on my enchiladas/tamales, and I can only have the whole beans (not refried), but that's not bad! She says other managers know what to do too, but I haven't had to find out b/c both times we've been there since my diagnosis, she's been there and helped me out.
So here's a preliminary list of restaurants I know about for me to get started:
- Matt's El Rancho
- Guero's (owner is GF)
- Serrano's (manager says they have a printed menu; haven't been in yet to check out)
- Cantina Laredo (emailed me the menu and have it in restaurant; haven't tried)
- PF Changs (menu online w/some of my favorites on it -- can't wait to try!)
- 360 Uno Trattoria (very delicious; waitress was not very knowledgeable, but owner is GF, so several options on menu are available GF, including pizza, which I will try sometime in future)
- Fogo de Chao (they say almost everything is GF, including the bread rolls -- yea!)
- Brick Oven -- especially one on Brodie has a bunch of options; others have pizzas
- Chipotle (as long as you avoid the tortillas, everything's GF, but b/c of cross-contamination, I have to ask them to change gloves before preparing my food)
- Terraburger
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Beginning
Welcome friends!
Quick recap: On April 8, 2010 (just 2.5 weeks ago), I received a diagnosis of Celiac Disease* from my gastroenterologist's office and my whole dietary world changed in an instant. Gone was the option of swinging by any ol' fast food joint for a quick bite when I was hungry while out and about. Gone were most of the easy desserts I knew and loved -- especially the prepackaged grab-and-go ones like store-bought cookies or even break-and-bake ones. I was going to have to relearn how to make many of the dishes I regularly served because not only did many of them contain obvious sources of wheat (like flour tortillas, pastas, or bread crumbs), but many also contained hidden gluten sources (like condensed cream of chicken soup). I was instantly transformed into a grocery store label reader, whether I liked it or not. Worse, I am now, at least for the short term, forced to be a high-maintenance restaurant patron who has to ask for a special menu or assistance from a knowledgeable manager every time we go out to eat.
At the urging of more than one of my friends, I have started this blog. Part of it will undoubtedly be about venting my frustrations over failed batches of cookies and unavailable replacement products for some of my favorites from days of yore. Some of it will be sharing my elation when I find a perfect brownie or a main dish my family all loves to eat with me. In the end, I hope to structure it in such a way that it can help others who may find themselves forced onto this journey due to their own diagnosis down the line. There are countless resources online that have already been a HUGE help to me, so maybe this will end up being more clutter than help. If I decide that's the case, I'll abandon it and/or take it down because the LAST thing I want to do is make this transition HARDER for someone else to deal with in their life!
Since I've already been through several triumphs and let-downs in the first 2 weeks, I'll probably create a couple of posts in the next couple of days about some of that, just to have a complete-ish log of my journey. Stay tuned...
*NOTE: Celiac Disease is an inherited autoimmune disease in which the lining of the small intestine is damaged from eating gluten and other proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye. Oats are also often forbidden (unless they're certified gluten-free oats) not because they are a problem in and of themselves but because they are often cross-contaminated with wheat.
Quick recap: On April 8, 2010 (just 2.5 weeks ago), I received a diagnosis of Celiac Disease* from my gastroenterologist's office and my whole dietary world changed in an instant. Gone was the option of swinging by any ol' fast food joint for a quick bite when I was hungry while out and about. Gone were most of the easy desserts I knew and loved -- especially the prepackaged grab-and-go ones like store-bought cookies or even break-and-bake ones. I was going to have to relearn how to make many of the dishes I regularly served because not only did many of them contain obvious sources of wheat (like flour tortillas, pastas, or bread crumbs), but many also contained hidden gluten sources (like condensed cream of chicken soup). I was instantly transformed into a grocery store label reader, whether I liked it or not. Worse, I am now, at least for the short term, forced to be a high-maintenance restaurant patron who has to ask for a special menu or assistance from a knowledgeable manager every time we go out to eat.
At the urging of more than one of my friends, I have started this blog. Part of it will undoubtedly be about venting my frustrations over failed batches of cookies and unavailable replacement products for some of my favorites from days of yore. Some of it will be sharing my elation when I find a perfect brownie or a main dish my family all loves to eat with me. In the end, I hope to structure it in such a way that it can help others who may find themselves forced onto this journey due to their own diagnosis down the line. There are countless resources online that have already been a HUGE help to me, so maybe this will end up being more clutter than help. If I decide that's the case, I'll abandon it and/or take it down because the LAST thing I want to do is make this transition HARDER for someone else to deal with in their life!
Since I've already been through several triumphs and let-downs in the first 2 weeks, I'll probably create a couple of posts in the next couple of days about some of that, just to have a complete-ish log of my journey. Stay tuned...
*NOTE: Celiac Disease is an inherited autoimmune disease in which the lining of the small intestine is damaged from eating gluten and other proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye. Oats are also often forbidden (unless they're certified gluten-free oats) not because they are a problem in and of themselves but because they are often cross-contaminated with wheat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)