Man of the Year

Last week Timm called me from work to tell me that he was just awarded 'Teacher of the Year' at his high school. (There are about 100 teachers there-) I was so excited! I have always known that he is an exceptional teacher, and will tell anyone who will listen, but finally he is being recognized for it. This year he transferred to a prestigious new high school closer to us, which just opened this year. He was nominated by his peers, which I believe to be even more of a compliment. Even teachers recognize him as the best teacher. I could keep gushing; I'm just really proud of him. I've told everyone I encounter, even if it is not easily worked into the conversation. Did I mention he is Teacher of the Year? Cause he is. Linda was appropriately impressed when I told her, and suggested we have a dinner to celebrate. Blake and Hayden made him this sweet banner.

Paul, Linda, Blake and Hayden congratulated him on paper.

Linda prepared a typically wonderful fare according to Timm's preferences. Roast with potatoes and carrots, balsamic green beans, and a great salad. I made this awesome flourless chocolate cake, courtesy of Michelle. I didn't actually have any, but I have it on good account that it was awesome. Just happens to be flourless, so it was the perfect Gluten-Free dessert! I think I will keep this as a standby GF dessert. In your face, garbanzo bean flour!

The gang. (Sorry Sophie and Chase!)

Like I said, I've always thought of him as Teacher of the Year, but now he's being recognized for it. (Not financially, of course. Not really in any way other than verbally, but still.) It looks great on his resume, which has seen a lot of use lately, know what I mean? Also, did I mention that this is only his 4th year of teaching, and his first at this school? Cause it's true.

For our full mailing address where checks of congratulations can be sent, please email me and I will happily provide it.

Way to go, Timmy!

A Letter

Dear Bob's Red Mill,

For the past 6 weeks my family has embarked upon the daunting and sometimes perilous journey of going Gluten-Free. My husband and possibly both of my children have Celiac disease. I am also a cook, and a baker. A pretty good one too. Especially the baking part. I was not raised or taught to use mixes in almost any scenario. We are from the make-it-from-scratch persuasion and this tradition has been passed down through several generations, as evidenced by my dog-eared and stained recipes from my grandmother. I'm sure you can imagine my dismay when faced with the task of continuing to bake good-for-you and more importantly good-tasting wheat-free cakes and cookies and the like for my family. Thus I have turned to mixes and relied heavily on them these past 6 weeks. As I learn to navigate the GF waters, buying specialty flours and ingredients to mix my own all-purpose flour, learning what ratio of xanthan gum to add to these flours and how to substitute these in my favorite recipes, mixes have become a crutch. A really good one to get us through these first few weeks. And for the most part, they have been surprisingly good. With 2 notable exceptions. Which brings me to my point:

First, it should be known- I am a bean lover. Across the board, I love beans. I even like lima beans! So it is not with an unfair bias against beans that I say to you, "Why in the name of all that is holy do you insist on making mixes, especially those meant for sweet treats like cake, with garbanzo bean flour?!?!? And fava beans?!" Now, I know you did not pioneer the use of these legume-derived flours, at least not to my knowledge. But when there are perfectly good, bland, and distinctly non-bean flours available, like rice, that you can easily slip in without notice, why would you rely on fava beans?! I made my favorite cookie recipe and they looked great. Held up wonderfully and could barely see a difference. Until I ate one and thought, "Hm. Beans." Have you ever had a bean cookie? No. And do you know why? Because they are disgusting. That is the reason you have not seen them featured behind the bakery glass or written up in Bon Appetit. People don't like beans in their cookies. Now, I used your all-purpose flour mix, so you could argue that maybe that particular flour would be best in a savory dish, in small quantities where it could go unnoticed. This is true. But then explain to me why you would create a chocolate cake mix, and then use the same garbanzo and fava beans flours?! It is specifically and obviously created to make a chocolate cake, and guess what? Not unlike the cookies, people don't like bean cake. And it's not subtle. I mixed it up, ignorantly, and it looked great. With anticipation, I licked the beater, as is a favorite pastime of mine. Immediately I shuddered and exclaimed "Beans!! Oh crap. Beans." And shuddered again.

Seriously, chocolate cake?

Garbanzo beans? 

They do not go together.

I implore you to use other milder flours such as rice, but until then I will be taking my business to Betty Crocker, who's mixes are decidedly unbeany. I can't believe that I have come to take a stance on mixes that is anything but opposition, but here we are.

At an impasse.

I finally mixed up my own blend, so I hope to leave your mixes on the shelf from now on. I will, however use your individual ingredients. One of which, by the way, is rice flour. 

Bothered by Beans,

Jessie

Gluten-Free, Week 1

Well, it's been about a week and a half since we made the switch, and it's going pretty well. Bella was the main concern, as she is already so picky and her scope of acceptable foods is always narrowing. She has proved to still be a bit of a challenge, as foods she liked last week may now be considered revolting. Lunch is an especial challenge since she can't eat her standard peanut butter and honey sandwich. 

Here are some of the GF things in our pantry right now, some of which we have tried and some we have not. It should go without saying that most of these things are prohibitively expensive, but necessary- especially when you are trying to appease a 5-year old.

The verdict on some of these foods.

The Good:

Gluten-Free Bisquick is great! We had pancakes for dinner one night and I thought they were genuinely good, not just a decent stand-in for actual pancakes. Yum.

Gluten-Free Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookies- surprisingly good. The 'batter' was weird, so I was uncertain. It's very crumbly, and I had to ball the dough, packing it a bit to put it on the cookie sheet. Once baked, they were pretty good. I froze them, to help with portion control and was later (that night) reminded that I like frozen cookies almost more than fresh. Frozen you couldn't even tell a difference, but I guess a stick of butter for 2 dozen cookies doesn't hurt.

Trader Joes Brownie Mix: Pretty good, but very fudgy. Everything GF tends to be a bit dense, but that's okay in a brownie.

Mi-Del Chocolate Chip Cookies were pretty good in a Chips A Hoy! sort of way.

Glutino crackers were okay. They're kind of like saltines, and at least they're plain. I'm hoping Bella will eat them with peanut butter.

Rice pastas are pretty good. I mean, it's used in asian cuisine all the time. A bit sticky, but still good.

Udi's bagels look awesome, like regular bagels, but we haven't tried them yet.

I've wanted to try quinoa ('keen-wah') for a long time, but also found it prohibitively expensive. Going GF is the push I needed to try it. We made this old favorite recipe of mine, swapping the couscous we usually use for quinoa, 1:1. It was awesome! The only change we had to make was to let it sit for about 1 minutes to let all the water absorb.

The Bad:

Food For Life brown rice bread is awful. Disgusting. Wretched. Dreadful. Before we bought it I asked Timm what his mom ate, and if she liked it. His response was "Well, no one likes it." It is obvious why. Bella however, happily ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich on it and asked for more. So I hid my revolt.

Rice Crackers we got in the asian food section are g-r-o-s-s, gross. They just taste like salt.

So-So:

I made Miracle Bread using Bob's Red Mill all purpose baking mix and some xanthum gum, and while it was a far cry better than the brick of rice bread we bought at Trader Joe's, I'm still on the fence. The texture is off-putting.  It's just so dense and spongy. Timm however, told me it was the best GF bread he'd ever tasted and wants me to make it a staple. And at around $3.50 or so to make, is much better than the $6 we paid for that other monstrosity.

Well Molly, it looks like you're going to get me shopping at Trader Joe's regularly for once! I've always shied away because I assumed it was too expensive, and Molly was always trying to push me through the door. Not only do they carry hard to find GF products, but their prices on specialty products is better than typical grocery store products.

If you have any product recommendations or GF recipes to share, pass it along!