Welcome to the world of the Irish

welcome to the gluten free (GF) goodness site- a site that discusses the pros and cons of different gluten free books, edibles, and recipes, as well as what it's like to live with celiac disease/gluten intolerance/celiac sprue.

I'm drafting this because, when I was diagnosed at 20, I went through just about every medical test imaginable, with a doctor who's bedside manner was prehistoric. One day, after the small intestinal biospy (if you want to know more about how celiac disease is diagnosed, stay tuned), I received a call from this doctor. He told me "you have celiac spruce" and was about to hang up. I'm not kidding. I panicked and asked him, "what is that? what do I do? what does that mean?" and in the very cryptic doctor language, he told me, "you can't eat gluten".

Whoa.

What the hell is gluten? So, I asked.

"it's in wheat and oats and rye and barley" (there goes my life as a baker).

"well, what do I do know? what am I supposed to eat? " To the reply of, "well, the dietitian will be meeting with you to talk about that. "

want to guess when the next appointment with the dietitian was?

so, 2 MONTHS later, I meet with the dietition. Would have died from this condition if I hadn't been willing to experiment. And cry. And experiment. And cry. And cry. And cry.

For those of you who have had this condition for quite some time, you'll know what I mean. Ever tried to make muffins with brown rice flour? (and since this was 12 years ago, that's just about what you could get around here at the co-ops). Oh, my god, and the EnerG Tapioca loaf. GAG!

So, I was resigned to a life of tapioca pudding (couldn't do instant Jello pudding because it had gluten in it) and rice cakes. Not the flavored ones. The coaster.

I have managed to survive this condition and "buck up", as they say. I continued to experiment with lots of different types of flours, recipes, techniques- all of that. But that's what I went to school for. Yes, I have two degrees in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry and Cell Biology. It basically means that I'm really good at trial and error in the wee hours of the morning. I've found some great combinations, which still take LOTS of work, but you can fake the gluten. (stay tuned for that in another blog). So, I'm journaling all of my heartache in this blog- it's theraputic. ha ha ha! Yes, recipes, yes, sob stories, yes, restaurants where you can order anything on the menu because they WILL make the substitution for you.

see you in the kitchen!
The irish lass