In the beginning...

January 2010, Tony decided it was time...time for change.  Initially we had a number of friends dropping off their favorite gluten-free items & books. Tony was trying to replace his favorite regular foods with purchased gluten-free foods & that didn't really work for him.  Since I too would be joining him on this GF venture, it seemed logical to me to eat foods in nature (not that wheat isn't one of those foods) but I reflected on my journey as a vegetarian and decided that the steps I took embarking on that lifestyle were natural; not forced & I should give that a go.  For instance, as a vegetarian I didn't eat veggie burgers because they would never equate in taste & texture to a real burger; therefore I simply eliminated that type of food from my personal menu.

Many of the cookbooks & magazines for gluten-free recipes also were dairy, soy, egg, & sugar-free. Stripping & replacing all of these ingredients from my cooking & palette was not so enjoyable - in fact, it was a bit of a shock to my system (and more so Tony's).  More importantly, this type of cooking/baking was stealing my thunder from the kitchen.  I began dreading not only cooking/baking, but eating.  That's when I put all books aside & went back to my Italian roots of cooking.  Much of what I cook is not necessarily measured - certainly not in a traditional sense. Rather, I use my sense of smell & texture to determine when my food is "right."  However, given that I was converting my traditional recipes to gluten-free, I was mindful to measure along the way so that I could create recipes that could be repeated until they were second nature to me.  Also, since I was "playing" in my kitchen, I wanted to catalog everything as I varied the recipe a tad each time until I ascertained the consistency & flavor I really wanted.  That's when we finally met with success living  gluten-free.  We didn't feel deprived life this was a death sentence (we really enjoy cooking & eating) & passion returned to the kitchen.

As for my reference to vegetarian lifestyle, many of the dishes I make were converted long ago to meat-free such as Pasta Fajioli which is traditionally made with pancetta, as well as chicken stock.  Now this dish is not only meat-free in our kitchen, but also gluten-free & deliciously comforting!

One item in our kitchen that I would highly recommend for all cooks is the Vitamix.  I'll share frugal & fresh tips with the Vitamix on the next blog.

Ciao,
Maryanne