Gluten free cornbread

I've been putting off the inevitable- gluten free baking. Not because I don't like baking; I actually love to bake. I just have been feeling overwhelmed with the whole gluten free cooking, and baking takes a lot more skill and research than I could muster right now. Between getting the house ready for sale and the baby, I rarely have time to cook dinner, let alone bake. I thought that my first foray into the realm of gf baking should be a relatively easy recipe.

It actually turned out fine. I merely substituted the all-purpose flour in the recipe and added xantham gum.

Enjoy!

Buttery cornbread ( I never said it was healthy...)
adapted from an Epicurious recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups coarse stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
3/4 t xanthan gum
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend

Preparation

Butter 9x5x3-inch metal loaf pan. Mix cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and coarse salt in large bowl. Add buttermilk, melted butter, and beaten eggs. Stir with wooden spoon until well blended. Let mixture stand 30 minutes to absorb liquid. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°F.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake bread until browned around edges and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let bread rest in pan 5 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack and cool completely. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and store at room temperature.

The Best Wheat Substitute

I don't think it would surprise anyone to know that the type of food most impacted by a gluten-free restriction is bread. In a nutshell, gluten-free bread sucks. It's actually hard to find gluten-free bread thats not frozen. Even full metal bread sucks after it's been frozen. Second, GF bread has this... too dense, too mealy, too crumbly quality to it...

There are a few notable exceptions... First - if you toast the bread, it sucks far less. Second - if you get it directly from a wheat-free bakery (like Rose's Wheat-Free Bakery), the results can be surprisingly good. Roses has a burger with beef from a ranch owned by Bill Curtis (yes, that Bill Curtis) served on Rose's sandwich rolls. The first bite is unsettling, because we have built up expectations about the kind of bread upon which burgers should be served. By the second bite, you notice how well the flavors and textures work together. By the last, you're anticipating the next time you can order one.

We've tried a number of GF frozen pizza options with varying degrees of success. The best of these has been the Amy's Rice Crust Pizza. Lou Malnati's, however, takes a completely different approach to gluten-free...

While other efforts replace the wheat with rice or corn, the Malnati's crew seems to have thought, "That's too hard." They went ahead and replaced the wheat with... wait for it... Sausage! That's right: When you order a Malnati's Gluten-Free Pizza, you get a big disk of sausage with sauce, cheese, and toppings on it. We actually got Pepperoni on a disk of cheesy, saucy, sausage... It ruled.

While this may be the nutritional equivalent of Hawaii trading a rat problem for a mongoose problem, I am looking forward to Malnati's serving me a hot dog on a bun made of sausage. Or, perhaps, a salad served in a sausage bowl... The possibilities are endless.

Meat nuggets

We bought these Garrett county "Chicken Bites" dinosaur shaped nuggets in an effort to introduce more meat into Ellie's diet. I thought the nugget would be the "gateway" meat- enticing her to eat some grilled chicken perhaps someday.

Our past attempts had been met with resistance- she told us in no uncertain terms that she likes chickens and that she had no interest in eating them. When you think about it, that makes sense. We don't call ham "pigs" or ground beef "ground pigs". So we thought we'd trick her into eating chicken by calling them meat nuggets. Plus they are dinosaur shaped! What fun, right?

No go. Although she enjoyed dipping them in ketchup, she didn't actually want to then eat the dipped nugget. She may have taken a bite, but then spit it out.

They actually were pretty tasty. Not greasy like a McNugget, it has a drier coating on it. I could snack on these with some barbeque sauce and be pretty happy. The downside is that there is 18g of fat per serving (4 nuggets), which I thought was a lot. All in all I would recommend.

Cheezy crackers

I think Ellie is going to turn into one of these. She would eat the entire box in one sitting if I let her.

They are pretty tasty, I'll give her that. They are very, very crunchy, like a rice cracker usually is. They don't have the strong aftertaste you sometimes encounter with a rice cracker. Perhaps that's due to the fact that they are also made from almonds? I don't know.

We've only tried the cheddar cheese flavor, although there are several other flavors. The cheddar cheese dust does stick to your hands and face, a la cheetos style. This makes them not the ideal treat for the car or stroller.
The box says they are manufactured in the same facility as wheat is, yet the box claims to be gluten-free. I'm assuming this means they are separated from the wheat products and they are extremely careful with cross-contamination. It's good that they put this disclaimer there anyhow.

At $2.99 a box, they're not a bad value. There's not that much in the box, however, but they were actually on sale at Whole Foods. I didn't think they had sales there.

A New Beginning

Hey there.

There's been a lot going on in our lives the last few months. Around Christmastime, or shortly thereafter, Ellie started being a little fussy with her eating. We didn't think much of it because she'd just turned 2, and everyone told us that 2 year olds may not eat as much because their growth slows down.

Fast forward a month and enter the New Guy. Now Ellie really isn't eating much,but she is still eating a good breakfast and some lunch and dinner. Everyone, including doctors, chalk it up to her adjusting to the baby.

Leap ahead another month and we're getting really concerned. Not only is she not eating well, she's not playing anymore. She doesn't want to read books. She doesn't want to dance. She doesn't want to walk. She won't get off the couch. She wants to be carried everywhere. She says her legs hurt. When she stops going to the bathroom, we take her to the doctor. He thinks this is all due to constipation, so we try to treat that. An x-ray shows she is seriously backed up in that department. Five days later when we are giving her a bath, she looks like a child from a third world country- bloated belly and skin and bones.

We rush her to the emergency room. They too think this is due to constipation, that she's holding it in because she's upset about the baby. "But she loves the baby," I say. They decide to give her a tap water enema. They come in with an IV bag and a large hose. Five minutes later it's coming out of both ends... she's throwing up too.

I look at my sickly, pale daughter with sunken eyes, unable to walk and with no personality left and think, "This is due to constipation?!!!" It just didn't make sense to me.

They tested for a lot of scary stuff. We were going to go for the cystic fibrosis test when our doctor called. The celiac disease blood panel came back. "She sure does have it." he said.

I know having your daughter diagnosed with a disease shouldn't be a good thing, but let me tell you, it was a relief. Compared to the other conditions, this is a treatable situation. Looking back, it really makes sense. She had every symptom on the list.

It's been an adjustment, to say the least. No more cheerios, in fact, a lot of the snacks she was used to are out. Cooking has been fine, just a little more expensive for the gluten-free products at Whole Foods. Baking is something I'd like to tackle someday, just not yet.

I'm starting this blog to chronicle the different products and meals we are trying, to keep track of it all. If it's helpful to someone else, great. I know I've been relying on a lot of other blogs to help me.

Wish us luck!