I love food. I love to cook. I love to bake. I can look at a recipe and know how good it will taste just by seeing the combination of ingredients. I can change recipes on the fly depending on the status of my pantry. I am not a gourmet I just really like food. I grew up being called a picky eater but I prefer to be called a discerning one. Everyone has foods they don't like and mine are onions, mushrooms, sausage and most seafood. I can work around all of these things. Now I have encountered a road block that I am forced to break down chink by little chink. Celiac has come to my little family and I don't like it (feel free to picture me stomping my foot, crossing my arms and making an undignified huff.)
It started with Froggy, my poor little 3-year-old and his, um, "fear of the caca." After struggling for a year with this "fear" the doctor decided it would be prudent to rule out celiac. "Rule out" proved to be an incorrect term as the blood test floored everyone with its' results.
Bad enough that we now needed to persuade our willful preschooler that those yummy butter crackers he prefers are no longer an option but the news would only get worse. Less than two weeks after his diagnosis we were floored again to find that not only does Froggy have it but so do I, his sister Kitty and his brother Lego. Luckily they are young enough that they don't understand the whole genetic thing or else they would be giving me the stink eye everytime they eat.
I find myself going along just fine and then BAM, I remember something that I will never have again (unless I cheat of course.) Shakespeare's Pizza, Dixie Cream Donuts, Randy's Pumpkin Pie Concretes are up there as the big contenders to bring me low if I think about not eating them again. My daughter has to be reminded that Cookies and Cream ice creams are no longer an option and we have yet to remind her that cookie dough ice cream is out as well.
I have come up with my own gluten-free all-purpose flour mix that I am happy with and have started adapting recipes and found other recipes that have been pretty good. The pancake recipe is a work in progress but it is getting pretty darn close to what we are used to eating every Sunday. My husband is kind enough to point out that I am the only person tasting a distinct difference in anything and that he and the kids have no problems with these new adapted recipes.
The mourning period looks to be long. I have my good days and my bad days dealing with this issue. We have family that don't understand why we are taking gluten out of our diets and will hopefully consent to be educated about the disease we are now struggling with daily. I have friends who are dealing with this too so we have a support network. When I feel like I need to talk about it there is always someone there to listen. When I need to get a person's take on a recipe there is always someone there to taste it for me and give me feedback.
Our support network made up of friends and family will keep us sane, thankfully.
