I’ve been an accomplished cook for a long time. Literally since high school thanks to joyful years of investment in the family kitchen on my own and along with my mother and grandmother. What makes an accomplished cook brilliant is depth and breadth of experience. A little taste and you know the missing touch is a pinch of salt, a hint of fresh-grated nutmeg, or a little bit more baking powder to offset the weather that day.
I sailed through years in this mode: creating recipes, dazzling friends and family alike, fearlessly entertaining business associates. Then change happened. Unexpected, unlooked for change in the form of allergies creating the need for cutting out soy, gluten, and reducing added hormones in food as much as our budget could afford. Two weeks into the journey I was frustrated and unconvinced. I didn’t feel a difference yet. Fortunately, my husband could see them and cheer me on to not give up yet. Now, after nearly a year, he says he continues to see improvement. If I look back, I agree. I don’t feel sick every day. A couple nights short on sleep isn’t an instant formula for two weeks of flu-like symptoms. Flying is still tricky, but we’re also working on that solution.
The time for the next step has arrived. I’m a serious foodie. Cookbooks count as reading material in my life. Finding new tastes, combinations and flavors easily becomes a full-time avocation. An extra blessing is my husband’s work as a wine professional. His events usually involve food as well. Darn! My vocations are no more mundane but often require even more prep-work for success: massage and writing. Today as I write, however, the roaster bubbles away with turkey parts from the local, super-healthy producer to make luxuriant stock. I figure out ways to work it all in. And this afternoon I began my own re-education as an accomplished cook in the Gluten-Free world.
Homemade bread, pie crusts, cookies or brownies, breaded meats, and nearly any type of sauce was an effortless undertaking. In most cases I didn’t even have to measure any more. Base recipes lived in my actions as instincts. That reality is gone. I’ve spent months making other’s recipes for every-day things. In some cases I’ve found places to start that became useful though rarely brilliant. In other cases, I learned that a make-do recipe did not meet my tastes or desires. Today I start one journey with two items at the destination, even if the location is simply a long layover for choosing my next food-journey. I am reeducating my body and abilities to really understand Gluten Free flours, what they do, how to best combine flours and how to change the combinations based on desired outcomes. It’s time to practice the effort away.
The second objective upon reaching that first long pause is a book. An accessible cookbook, educational volume for those who eat gluten free for whatever reason and want to be able to truly operate in a mode of cooking freedom while maintaining this dietary code. The goal is un-recipes. Recipes you can use and learn in response to looking in your cupboards for what’s on hand while satisfying you and anyone else in your home at the same time.
So begins the re-education of a cook, this cook, Heidi Sue Roth.
I sailed through years in this mode: creating recipes, dazzling friends and family alike, fearlessly entertaining business associates. Then change happened. Unexpected, unlooked for change in the form of allergies creating the need for cutting out soy, gluten, and reducing added hormones in food as much as our budget could afford. Two weeks into the journey I was frustrated and unconvinced. I didn’t feel a difference yet. Fortunately, my husband could see them and cheer me on to not give up yet. Now, after nearly a year, he says he continues to see improvement. If I look back, I agree. I don’t feel sick every day. A couple nights short on sleep isn’t an instant formula for two weeks of flu-like symptoms. Flying is still tricky, but we’re also working on that solution.
The time for the next step has arrived. I’m a serious foodie. Cookbooks count as reading material in my life. Finding new tastes, combinations and flavors easily becomes a full-time avocation. An extra blessing is my husband’s work as a wine professional. His events usually involve food as well. Darn! My vocations are no more mundane but often require even more prep-work for success: massage and writing. Today as I write, however, the roaster bubbles away with turkey parts from the local, super-healthy producer to make luxuriant stock. I figure out ways to work it all in. And this afternoon I began my own re-education as an accomplished cook in the Gluten-Free world.
Homemade bread, pie crusts, cookies or brownies, breaded meats, and nearly any type of sauce was an effortless undertaking. In most cases I didn’t even have to measure any more. Base recipes lived in my actions as instincts. That reality is gone. I’ve spent months making other’s recipes for every-day things. In some cases I’ve found places to start that became useful though rarely brilliant. In other cases, I learned that a make-do recipe did not meet my tastes or desires. Today I start one journey with two items at the destination, even if the location is simply a long layover for choosing my next food-journey. I am reeducating my body and abilities to really understand Gluten Free flours, what they do, how to best combine flours and how to change the combinations based on desired outcomes. It’s time to practice the effort away.
The second objective upon reaching that first long pause is a book. An accessible cookbook, educational volume for those who eat gluten free for whatever reason and want to be able to truly operate in a mode of cooking freedom while maintaining this dietary code. The goal is un-recipes. Recipes you can use and learn in response to looking in your cupboards for what’s on hand while satisfying you and anyone else in your home at the same time.
So begins the re-education of a cook, this cook, Heidi Sue Roth.