Best Sandwich Bread Ever

I was once a lover of whole grain, fiber-packed sandwich bread. The grainy texture and durable slices formed around delicious cheeses, meats, and sauces to make my lunch. After I joined the celiac club, I tried, and loved, Udi's sandwich brad. If you have ever tried it, it's satisfying, yet kind of empty. By empty, I mean it tastes like it has no nutritional value.

I have been baking this recipe almost every week. It's quick, it's easy to change, and husband-approved. The book Easy Gluten-Free Baking by Elizabeth Barbone is fantastic, uses mostly rice flours, and has yet to disappoint me. If you have ever baked gluten-free, you know how special that is.

Wet Ingredients
1 3/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 large eggs

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup instant NF dry milk
1 tbs xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
**I add a heap of ground flax seed & Italian herbs grown by my BFF

Lightly grease a 9X5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray

In a small bowl, combine water and yeast

In a mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add yeast mixture, oil, and eggs. Let mixer go on medium speed for 5 minutes.

Pour batter into greased pan, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and leave alone for 60 minutes.

Bake (without plastic wrap!) for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. I recommend letting the loaf cool overnight before slicing it. It's best, in my opinion, when toasted. Enjoy!

Grocery Store Reviews

One of my favorite memories as a newly-diagnosed celiac is of the first grocery shopping trip my husband and I took. Gluten-free lists in hand, we must have studies the ingredients of 80% of PCC Natural Markets' shelves. It was an incredibly overwhelming feeling to have many items "unsafe" for me to eat, and yet it was balanced by the wholehearted gratitude I felt watching my husband show me the gluten-free food he found for me. His eagerness and willingness to comply with this burden of a lifestyle kept me going through the narrow isles. While grocery shopping remains a more mentally taxing chore than ever before, I have gotten better at it one store at a time. Different needs call for different stores, but my list below might shed some light on who offers what you are looking for. Take a buddy for support, a list of evil ingredients, and a deep breath - you can do this!

Whole Foods (A+)

• Beautiful, satisfying shopping experience - that means something to me, although it shows on my bill
  
• Great deli for sandwich meats
• I've met some incredibly helpful, smart employees who never fail to brighten my day
• A bounty of amazing things I can eat, although it requires some searching, but so many different flavors and cuisines to taste
  

PCC Natural Markets (A)

• Easy-to-find shelf tags of some popular GF items
• Most packaged GF items (chips, crackers, baking ingredients)
• Pricey - I avoid paying that much for produce
• GOOD for newbies
  
• I feel good about shopping here because they have taken the effort to help our GF friends
  

Trader Joe's (A)

• Offers a huge print-out of GF items in the store
• Trader Joe's label items may be produced in a factory with wheat, but go through a 10-step cleaning process to protect from cross-contamination - that's fine by me
• Cheap! Thank you!
• I do not enjoy their produce - blah
  

Janell's Gluten Free Market, in Everett (B)

• Obviously a welcoming feeling to know you can have ANYTHING in the store!
• Hefty price mark-ups
• Many baked-goods mixes
  

Ballard/Greenwood Market (B)

• I adore these stores, always have - good community presence
• GF items not easily identifiable for a newby, but with a few trips you learn what to get

For what it's worth, here are some of my tips for GF grocery shopping:

1. Let go of the idea of bargain shopping. It's over. Save money elsewhere.
2. Plot where you get produce... an organic delivery service may save you money, or stock up at a store you know offers a better price than, say, PCC. High priced spinach does not mean higher vitamin content
3. Stock up of baking ingredients - you'll probably use them all quickly
4. Keep on hand some packaged snacks, bars, and mixes (pancake, etc.) We don't always need to cook from scratch
5. Treat yourself. It's a bummer sometimes and GF chocolate helps
   
6. Don't rush - labels must be read. When in doubt, go without
   
7. If the ingredient list is too long, don't bother anyways. Do you really want to eat that?
   

Zucchini Fritters

If you have ever experienced the food at Olive You, a Mediterranean restaurant in Greenwood (unfortunately closed at the moment), you may be fortunate enough to have tried their zucchini fritters. They are like lovely little fried pillows of happiness. I have missed these since they closed last year, so I thought I could just create my own.

There is no real science behind this recipe. I started with 2 eggs beaten with a splash of milk...then salt, pepper, one whole zucchini shredded, and a handful of gluten-free bread crumbs. Another handful of reduced-fat feta just felt right. Next, just heat up a skillet with olive oil and begin the cooking. I piled the goop into piles that were no bigger than if you were making cookies, to make it easier to flip. Serve with tahini, hummus, or my husband's favorite: ketchup.

Gluten Free Goddess

I can't write a blog about living a gluten-free life in Seattle without mentioning The "Gluten-Free Girl" herself, Shauna James Ahern. Her infamous website, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, and book Gluten-Free Girl, are on the forefront of every young celiac's reading lists. I bought her book within a week of learning I had celiac. I curled up on the couch, eager and desperate for information, and began to read her memoir. After ten minutes I threw the book towards the other end of the couch and thought "Seriously?! You're gonna tell me you never miss normal food and looove this stupid diet? We're done here." Sorry Shauna.

What I needed was understanding - someone to say "this sucks and let's talk about how to make it suck less." So I read a book my dad found for me called The First Year; Celiac Disease and Living Gluten-Free by Jules E. Dowler Shepard. This book was amazing - it broke down the first weeks and months of what to expect and go through, practical tips, how to navigate parties and vacations, everything I needed. I felt ready to accept my celiac and move on. Ready to read what Shauna had to say.

I went back to the Gluten-Free Girl book. Shauna has this incredible flair for painting a portrait of flavors so vivid, you can literally taste the Monet or Renoir of food she has created. My endeavors feel more like Picassos these days, but a girl's gotta start somewhere. She is so positive and sees the beauty in every ingredient...shares new recipes she creates almost every day on her website. THAT is a gluten-free goddess. I can just imagine her, floating ethereally through the kitchen, smiling and angelically whipping up a four course meal with the flip of her wand...while I stand in my sauce-covered apron, hair pushed back in a frenzy, eyes scrunched as I read the recipe for the 10th time trying to figure out how the hell you know when salmon is done. We all need something to aspire to, right? My copy of her book is now dog-eared at every recipe I want to eventually try. I've successfully made her salmon with blackberry glaze...although I didn't strain the glaze so we got a nice mouthful of seeds with every bite. Doesn't matter, I made salmon and liked it for the first time in my life (my cat appreciated it as well, which made it all the more gratifying). I kid you not, when my husband gave our cat a tiny piece of the salmon, her eyes grew big and lit up. She had to have more and the urgency showed on her face. That's how I felt after the first bite too.

Thanks Shauna, for guiding me towards appreciating my food more and curbing my 'tude about people who enjoy vegetables.

Hello Chard, Nice to Meet You

We got our first organic produce box yesterday from New Roots Organics in hopes that it will force us to eat fruits and veggies. It has always been hard for us to eat one veggie during the day, so you can imagine our excitement and curiosity. One of the "blessings" or curses of celiac disease is that I have to, by default, learn to eat produce I would have never touched in my previous life. You know you're a grown up when you look at a funny vegetable and think "Hmm how can I prepare this to enjoy it as much as I should considering it's nutritional value?" Carrot sticks are sooo 5th grade. I pulled out the long stalks of green leafs with deep red veins and stems. Ok, not too scary. I washed it and took a bite - bitter, thick, almost rubbery. I think to myself, "people all over the world love this stuff, so can I."

A co-worker gave me the idea of cooking chard with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, cranberries, caramelized onions, and garlic. Didn't sound too hard. So I did just that. I started by browning some onions and garlic chunks with the oil, salt, and pepper. The kitchen filled with the rich scent I couldn't wait to eat. When it was sufficiently cooked, I took a deep breath, and tossed in the pieces of chard. It simmered and shrank within moments. I threw in a splash more olive oil, and immediately regretted it.

Dinner time - our plates were organized into piles of chicken (not cooked any special way worth mentioning besides mildly chewy), roasted potatoes that probably also had too much olive oil but remained delicious, and the beautiful chard mixture. Green and red colors, luscious onions...the first bite was gratifying. A bite along with the chicken solved it's bland meatiness. The last few bites of chard made it painfully obvious how much olive oil I used. Lesson learned: limit the oil! Chard will return to our plates and bellies.

Anthony's GF Menu

Nothing is more welcoming at a restaurant than a gluten-free menu. It generally implies the staff will now how to take care of you and not respond with "there's no bread in your meal, it's fine!" One of the most difficult aspects of having celiac for me has been having to ask waiters a multitude of questions and hoping they understand the importance of my requests. I'm worried they will think I am fussy, picky, or just another one of those diet-crazed young women. Personally, I think allergy and food sensitivity should be a required part of the training needed for getting food handler's permits. While you're at it - please do not mock me when you bring my plate out in front of everyone I'm dining with. Discrete is the name of the game.

On a recent Google search for gluten-free restaurants in the Seattle area, I found Anthony's HomePort at Shilshole offers a GF menu! So last night my dad and I went to test it out. We sat on the outside deck, lined with beautiful plants and flowers, overlooking the water. Every few minutes we could see salmon leaping out of the water, which made us all the more eager to eat. The GF menu was not bad. I feel a little guilty complaining about a menu they didn't have to offer in the first place, because I am incredibly grateful when restaurants do! The appetizers were not appetizing to me...clams, mussels, etc. No thanks. On to the dinner menu - only a few main dishes including steak, prawns, crab and melon salad. Where is the salmon? Halibut? I glanced at my dad's menu and saw multiple listings of these fish that made my mouth water, but how was I to know if I was allowed to eat them or not? I will note our server was wonderful; she made recommendations, knew what I could not have, and did not mock any of my questions. I ordered a spinach salad (with four berries none the less) and used simply olive oil and vinegar as a dressing. My dinner of choice was the garlic prawns - a tad too buttery but still good, fresh green beans, and some sort of rice pilaf that I wanted a bucket of to take home with me. I kid you not, the pilaf was amazing. I sprinkled lemon on everything, which made for a nice summery flavor to compliment the warm Seattle sun. For dessert we split the creme brulee and fresh berries - completely satisfying. I'll give this meal a B, but the experience an A.

Feeding My Soul

May 28th, 2010..... "You tested positive for celiac disease." After a month of tummy troubles, you would think I would be thrilled to have a diagnosis. Instead, I cried in my husband's arms. I cried for the uncertainty of what the diagnosis meant for my life and wellbeing, the future medical bills this may incur - but most of all I cried over all the delicious and emotionally meaningful meals I would never be able to eat.

This blog is my journey from that place of mourning to where I stand now...in a kitchen, apron tied around my waist, baking our weekly loaf of gluten-free sandwich bread. (and it is delicious, I must add) "Soul Food" means more than just a bowl full of food. Soul Food is the vitamins and nutrients I am slowly discovering in the foods I eat; how I feel when I eat a perfectly tart Rainier cherry that tastes more like a juicy peach/grape mix than any sugar-covered maraschino cherry. Soul Food can be found in the things I do or learn that make my soul shine with happiness...a new exercise, rock wall climbing with my sister-in-law, a good book, yoga. My favorite Soul Food is a walk around the neighborhood, one hand resting on my husband's, the other hand holding a cup of coffee. Our souls can shine so brightly if we feed them well.

I am new at reading ingredient labels. I screwed up that loaf of bread I was baking because I added the wrong starch - so it grew like a monster in my oven. I will not write about perfect recipes and how much I love watching other people eat cake and thick crust pizza while I'm stuck with carrot sticks. The gloves are off, and I invite you to feed your soul along with me, one messy bite at a time.