I am gluten free, not by choice, although come to think of it who in their right mind would be gluten free by choice - I know I wouldn't.

This blog is meant to be a fun way for me to vent about being gluten free, the torture of trying to eat out and the trials of gluten free baking.

Most of my friends don't understand my allergy. They think I just can't eat bread and pasta. The part they don't understand is that I can't eat most sauces, dressings, soups or anything that comes in a box or a bag and anything that touches anything that has gluten in it.

Gluten is a bad word around my house lately . I was glutenized a few times over the summer so now I refuse to eat over any ones house anymore. The problem is that most people don't understand how sensitive I am to gluten now. They take it personally when I decline an invitation for dinner or show up with my own plate of food. Oh well people here's a news flash for you I don't like being sick!!


Thankfully I love to cook and I love to try new things. My kids are pretty good at trying new things also. At first I would make their meal and I would eat a frozen gluten free entree that usually tasted like the box it came in. What was I thinking??? So then slowly I introduced the glorious world of gluten freedom to them.

They were first skeptical, but soon found out that 'gluten free' didn't mean 'tastes like cardboard'. I started making my own sauces and soups and they ate it up. Then I started making gravy and potatoes or rice and beans and soon it just snowballed into baking breads and rolls and now I show up at functions with brownies or pies and cookies and I never tell anyone they are gluten free anymore and no one has a complaint.

Ive learned to modify recipes or I just wing it and sometimes its great and sometimes its crap, but its always made with love in my kitchen. I've also learned not to tell anyone that what they are eating is gluten free because they always have a comment about it not being the same or having a different texture or whatever, well I'm tired of hearing how my bread doesn't rise like regular bread, or my brownies aren't gooey enough, or my cake isn't fluffy enough. Guess what. Its not regular bread!!! Its my wonderful gluten free bread that doesn't make me sick for a week, so there!!!!!! ( yes my tongue is sticking out :P )

I would like to see one of them try to give up gluten for a week. See how hard it is to go to a restaurant and eat a salad when everyone else is eating fillet Mignon. When I say salad I mean some lettuce tomatoes and cucumbers, no dressing, no croutons, nothing. That's the part that sucks.

The good part about being gluten free is that it brought me back into the kitchen. I think homemade is healthier. I'd rather eat stew that has been cooking in my crock pot all day than to eat at a fancy restaurant. I'd rather eat tacos with guacamole I made in my kitchen any day over Taco Bell. I'd rather eat my Nana's Irish soda bread (Gluten free) any day over a ding dong. Homemade stuff is better that store bought hands down.

I love fresh fruits and vegetables and try to get my family to eat them as often as possible. I try to incorporate healthier options as often as I can but there is just something about a warm delicious brownie I cant resist. Really who can.

But seriously I love to cook and bake and I love the noises of the kitchen, of chopping and grinding and mixing and slicing and my all time favorite - hammering. OK its not called hammering in the real world but in my kitchen its called "hammering the meat with the big heavy thingy."

My 11 year old son who loves to help me in the kitchen also loves to hammer the meat with me. Sounds weird I know but its very relaxing to slam away at a piece of chicken than it is to say, smack someone in the head. You should try it some time.

Being from NY it took me a long time to adjust to living in the south, being half Italian it's taken me even longer to adjust to being gluten free.

Don't get me wrong I don't hate being gluten free. I sometimes find it makes even the simplest things we do everyday just a little bit harder and I have enough hard things to deal with every day.

This is my way of venting when I can't hammer the chicken in the kitchen.

Until next time.....