Cooking Deliciously Gluten-Free with guest author Frederick Brooke

You might be thinking — ‘Wait. Am I in the right place? Rachel doesn’t cook!’ But yes, I figured it’s timely given the impending holidays. And of course, I haven’t burned cooked a thing.

This guest post from talented author Frederick Brooke is timely, given that my husband and daughter, while not celiac, are both doing so much better since eating gluten-free. If you have someone who’s gluten-free in your life, read this and learn.

I’ve already sent this article to my guy, since it’s filed under ‘Great food I will burn.’

Feel free to leave comments for Frederick below!

 

Don’t Let Your Special Diet Get You Down

 

You can laugh about certain things, or you can cry. I choose to laugh. But that’s easy for me to say.

 

My wife and two of my three sons have celiac disease. Their bodies are not equipped with the enzyme that breaks down gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. If they go off the diet, they get diarrhea, bloating, and stomach cramps that leave them writhing on the floor. Not such a laughing matter.

 

Add to that the fact that I decided to go meat-free eleven years ago. Why? I read a book that convinced me it would be a healthier choice.

 

So now you know why my oldest son claims to be the only one in our house eating “normal” food.

 

My wife and the other two boys have to avoid things like bread, pasta, cake and cookies. No bagels for them, imagine! As if that weren’t bad enough, tiny amounts of wheat flour or flour-containing ingredients can be found in many sauces, salad dressings, soups, drinks and even ice creams. We always study the ingredients carefully. We interrogate waiters and waitresses and make them bring out the industrial sized product package, so we can check.

 

We don’t sit around the house crying about our complicated culinary situation. Instead, we’ve all become closet Jamie Olivers because of it. We’ve gotten more creative in the kitchen by checking sites like Spice Kitchen and Bar.

 

My wife makes gluten free bread once or twice a week, using gluten free flour and gluten free yeast. Even my son who eats “normal” food clamors for a piece when that comes out of the oven, steaming hot. Or her special jelly cookies (pictured).

 

I like to make lasagna, and since we are all big lasagna eaters I always make one gluten free and one with normal wheat-containing noodles. Bet you can’t tell which is which …

 

 

 

 

Delicious dishes all of us can eat, and like to eat, are easy to prepare and always tasty. We would serve meat alongside some of these, for the meat eaters. Others make good stand-alone meals. Here’s an unofficial top ten list:

 

• Risotto with saffron or with peas, beans and carrots
• Baked au gratin potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes
• Pizza made with gluten free crust
• Greek salad with feta cheese, potatoes, black olives
• Stuffed peppers (rice and tomato sauce mixture)
• Rice salad with cubed cheese, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and onions
• Potato salad (several different recipes)
• Gluten free pasta such as gnocchi with pesto sauce
• Raclette (boiled potatoes with melted cheese and pickles)
• Grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, onions, squash)

 

So cooking for special diets doesn’t drive us crazy. It’s everyday life for us. Pity the poor people who invite us over for dinner, though. We usually end up spending half an hour on the phone reassuring them that, although we may seem like space aliens, we are in fact harmless.

 

Do you have a special diet too? How does it affect your cooking routine? Do you find it challenging informing people about it when you’re invited to eat with them?

 

About Frederick Brooke:

My books are mysteries, for lack of a better word. Doing Max Vinyl is about a computer recycling con man, while Zombie Candy is about a serial adulterer who happens to love zombie movies. In both books, Annie Ogden, a recently returned Iraq War vet who is having trouble adjusting to civilian life, gets personally involved in taking down these world-class jerks. I like a book with a good dose of humor, and the humor can come from the absurd situations people find themselves in. The world we live in is an absurd place, and you can either laugh or cry about it.

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