Pam's Test Kitchen

Entering this world of gluten free awareness is a personal private experience had in a very public realm.

It is such a life changing transition that each person I have spoken with describes uniquely.

For me it began when we discovered members of our family most likely had Coeliac’s, tests having came back 80% conclusive. I began to alter my kitchen, remove all gluten from my cooking and introduce a high level of vigilance on all food consumed by my family, it felt like I had tumbled down Reverend Dawdson’s Rabbit hole without even an Alice to follow and no White Rabbit or Cat to offer guidance as the world turned upside down.

He smiles unhelpfully down from his tree.

Let me give a little background. I was raised in a health conscious household. My father taught me to bake whole wheat bread sweetened only with honey. We used margarine in our house as it was thought to be healthier and because we had lactose intolerance. We made most of our meals from scratch, or at least what I defined as from scratch back then. This this type of ‘healthy living’ was how I defined cooking and baking healthfully.

In between my childhood, my marriage to my amazing husband and the subsequent birth of our beautiful daughter, I went to and graduated from college.

I graduated with a degree in biochemistry/molecular biology.
This degree gifted me with several skills that would make our gluten free transition easier.

First, how to research a subject and it’s corrilaries. This enabled me to see how gluten could be effecting the bodies of my family, as well as how many products gluten can be used in as semi listed ingredients ( natural flavors, added protein, organic starch, binders, leavening… etc) and how many gluten free products can be cross-contaminated by gluten containing products when by proximity during processing in the same facility.

Second, I learned how to use the Scientific Method to design a process of elimination diet to provide the initial data for the doctor and later the nutritionist.

So, with this background perspective on me, the picture I now present, of me walking forth carefully following the steps of what was formally healthy living, looking at my map of our elimination diet…suspecting some mild allergy accommodations ahead, then suddenly falling in to the rabbit hole.

I then had to consciously choose to move forward into the world of purely gluten and casein free living.

Now here I am in this wonderland. Yes a wonderland, full of new tastes and smells. I have had to retrain my brain, may fine tune it is better way to put it, but in exchange I have been given the gift of a expanded palette for flavor and taste awareness.

What a sumptuous table is set before us!

The purpose of this blog it to provide some guidance to those newly diagnosed with gluten allergies and to those who believe that they might be gluten sensitive.
It’s to provide some assistance, a partial roadmap along the twist and turns that result from having in your life path shaken upside down and dropped back onto you with the sometimes overwhelming task of living a new normal. Eventually this new path will be one that is comfortable, familiar and, yes, even wonderful.
We can walk this path together. I can help you to make it easier.

Eight years ago, we found ourselves on this road, with no guild posts only the directive that if we did not follow it, terrible health concerns would follow and permanently damage our family.
So, I applied my science background coupled with my home Baking and Cooking background and found a path through the woods so to speak.

I began by finding a few stand by recipes, and a few trusted products.

I identified the resources in my area and set about networking with them to make connections and to learn more.

I determined which of our home products were safe to use and to consume.

I developed a formulae for calling manufactures to determine the safety of products.

I learned how to de-glutenate our kitchen, and our home.

I standardized how to travel safely with fears of contamination minimized.

Each of the above topics and many more will be discussed in detail over the coming months. Each month I will focus on one topic and post articles and useful links related to it.

Welcome to my test kitchen. I am Pam.

Into the Rabbit Hole

Come into the kitchen!