We Have Bread!

And it doesn't have any rice in it. I made my first loaf of gluten free bread today. My first loaf of bread ever, really. I know, I'm lame. I'm still getting over that bread making debacle from foods class in 11th grade. The bread is pretty good too. Tastes a little like wheat and a little like something else. I guess that something else would be buckwheat flour, sorghum flour and teff flour. Whatever they taste like. It's healthier than wheat bread too. Take that wheat! I guess teff is the grain that makes Ethiopean marathon runners run super fast and win all the gold medals at the olympics. Good to know, 'cause I could use an energy boost. So the bread didn't rise quite as good as it should have...I think. But other than that it turned out good. I have to give credit to this cool gluten free blogger where I found this recipe.I guess she's spent hours perfecting her bread. The internet is pretty awesome.

I'm guessing it's not supposed to be bumpy on top, but not bad for a first attempt.

Gl, Gl

I'm debating whether I should start a new blog or not. This one will stay around, although it is quite dead in the water at times. I'm going to be rambling on about gluten free cooking a lot so it may be a good idea to make a new blog-call it "The Incompetent Gluten Free Chef". Now you're all gonna want to steal that name. Or maybe I will ramble on about my new adventure here. Who knows for sure today.

I will say this: I am wary of baking with a flour that has garbanzo beans and fava beans in it. Beans in your cookies are just not natural. But the oatmeal raisin cookies did turn out pretty good. So maybe I'll give it another try. A side note, I don't know all the rules on oats yet. You can ONLY use oats that come from dedicated fields (not contaminated by those evil grains). And I've read some stuff that says you should only eat oats after you've been off gluten for a while and healed up. Something about oats, they don't have gluten but their genetic composition is slightly similar to wheat. Or something like that. I don't know. I could be wrong there. In other good baking news: I bought a Namaste gluten free spice cake mix. Ten thumbs up from everyone here (two per person, not ten, we don't have fifty thumbs collectively). A little denser than regular cake but good still. Almost brownie like but not quite. Makes me think their brownie and blondie mixes must be pretty good. They also don't have a hundred ingredients like a regular cake mix. Only the basic stuff so it's probably healthier.

The other good news is my recurring dream with the words "gluten free" floating around freely has stopped. I was probably mumbling "gluten free" in my sleep. Then there was the worst dream. Gluten Free and Glen Beck. It must have been some sort of "GL" theme. Very disturbing. I really want to go order pizza now. (Nothing to do with my weird dreams, I just don't want to cook dinner.) No? Then tostadas it is. I wish I would have remembered the guacamole.

Answers

I knew I wasn't crazy! Or paranoid. Or overreactive. Is that a word? This has been a while coming. Let me explain a little. It's been at least a couple of years, maybe more like three. We began to notice that one of my kids was slowing way down on her growth. She started out at a solid average height, some even said slightly above average. Then we noticed the shorter kids were catching up with her. Then they were passing her. Did I need to worry? Some said, well kids grow at different rates, she'll grow when her body is ready. No, it just didn't feel right. I know my being 5'9" and Brent being 6' tall is no guarantee of tall children. I don't need tall children. Although the pediatrician did do that prediction thing when she was 2 1/2 and predicted 5'8". But I also know you can't believe everything a doctor says. Especially when she has more than a dozen years to be proven wrong. But come on, I come from tall people. We don't do short. Brent's got mostly tall people in his family too. But maybe she takes after her grandma? Well sure, nothing wrong with that. But it just didn't feel right. So we waited for the growth spurt some said would happen. There was an inch here and there but it didn't seem right. So I took her to the doctor. This was Spring of '09. She was a little concerned. She ordered blood tests and x-rays. Everything was pretty okay. The x-rays showed her bone age was on the young side. That meant she would probably finish growing later than average. A late bloomer. So we moved forward. She grew almost two inches that years! But it looked like everyone else grew four.

I kept saying, well everything must be okay. She's just taking her time. Then why is she still throwing up? Did I not mention the recurring vomiting? But the doctor didn't seem overly concerned and her health seemed fine in general, besides the throwing up, so I tried a wait and see approach. This summer I took her back to the doctor for some immunizations. The doctor was now concerned about her weight. More blood tests were administered. Symptoms were beginning to be added on to this mystery: anemia, vitamin D deficiency. She wasn't absorbing nutrients properly. That would explain why she wasn't growing. I looked for answers on the internet. The doctor prescribed vitamins and ordered more blood tests. Finally, she contacted a pediatric G.I. specialist. So this past Tuesday we went into the hospital and she had an endoscopy. Celiac Disease. You know, the no gluten disease. We finally had an answer. My daughter is happy to have answers. Yes, she has to give up all gluten containing foods (anything with wheat, barley or rye). Forever. We may all try this new diet too. It runs in families and maybe in general it will get us eating more healthy. Get us off so much processed foods. But the best thing is we know what the problem is. We know what we need to do. It's going to be a big change. But it's nothing super scary. We are grateful for that. I love this girl, I'm so happy to know how to help her now. We finally have our answers.

Math Problems

Here is the problem with math. At least for those who stink at doing it. The material is covered too fast and most math teachers, while being very good at doing math, are not very good at explaining math. So you go through class, barely comprehending from week to week. Then you either bomb the class and have to retake it or you scrape by and are not adequately prepared for the next class and the whole thing starts over again. There is rarely a set up for success in these situations. Unless you are blessed with one of those rare teachers who are good at math and good at explaining math to the mathily challenged. I miss you Patty Hayes! (quite possibly one of those rare teachers)