Gluten Free

In my ever expanding social circle, I keep encountering more and more people are gluten intolerant or have celiac's disease. For those of you who haven't been out of the house for a while, gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. So all those typically wheaty things are off limits: cake, bread, (lefsa!), pizza, beer and so on. There's also a list of other non-typical things that may have gluten: gum, creamer, syrups, salad dressings, cereals and candy.

So said one friend, "It's easier now to be gluten free than it was a few years ago." But it still isn't easy. Of the many batches of lefsa I've seen made, the most recent one broke my heart because an 80 year old woman who has Celiac's was making it for everyone and couldn't have any herself. It is like the new diabetes - everyone knows someone who has to be GF now (if not a handful of people).

This knowledge combined with my stumbling upon this awesome blog yesterday led me to go on a gluten free shopping spree. I had no idea there were so many kinds of flour. Goodness!! Amaranth, sorghum, potato, tapioca, sweet rice, brown rice, white rice...

Going off a recipe for chocolate chip cookies from Shauna (Gluten Free Girl from above blog), I sifted four different kinds of flour together to create the delicious goodness that is my batch of GF Choc Chip Cookies. I'm going to hand them out to all my gluten free people in the hopes that they might enjoy eating them as much as I enjoyed baking them.

Beyond a desire to bake something delicious for those GF people I love, I have been reading about the benefits of going GF. Here for instance are some reason. Beyond the health benefits of not eating so much bread or so much wheat, there's always the possibility that I yself will be GF down the road (diagnoses are happening with shocking regularity). Regardless, I will always know someone who has to be GF and I'd love to be able to whip up a batch of something GF for them!

Here's to more GF adventures. Next up: my PB cranberry go bars are going gluten free!