A clean sweep and a new beginning

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a woman cleaned out her kitchen cabinet.  

Well, yes, that was me. It was only a month ago, but at times that month has seemed like a black hole of lost time.  And then, another part of me wants to say "What! Only a month!"  Oh well.  I have been here, but often out of touch.  Good intentions alone don't quite cut it, do they?

You see there was a reason for cleaning out the pantry, a reason beyond just plain cleanliness and orderliness that is. I was purging the kitchen, just as I have been purging my body, of gluten.

If you have followed the erratic progress of this blog you may recall that I was previously on a gluten free diet.  And then I wasn't.  And I didn't seem to suffer from the lack.  I won't bore you with all the tedious history.  I thought I had a problem with gluten.  I went off it, I felt better, my doctor's disagreed.  I gradually felt worse again, I was referred to more doctors, specialists in celiac disease, who were also puzzled and who ran more tests.  In the end they told me to go back to eating gluten in September 2007.  I felt fine.  Then G got sick, and had trouble eating and stopped eating bread, pasta, potatoes and rice.  Since getting him to eat at all was a challenge, I adopted the same diet and felt no major lack in my life.  I felt great.  I lost 20 pounds.  Once in a blue moon I would have a small treat mostly a rare indulgence in a lemon bar at the Farmer's Market, really the best lemon bars I have ever had.  But for the most part our life was mostly gluten free although not necessarily by design.

And then everything changed.

In November I had an allergic reaction to Fosamax.  I went to the emergency room twice and was on Prednisone and various antihistamines for 6 weeks.  When I went off the Prednisone I had occasional bursts of hives, mostly on my hands but they got better each week and responded to antihistamines.

And then, sometime in January my body went haywire with hives over more than half of my body, at one part over most of my body.  I couldn't figure it out. No one could figure it out.  I had already been tested for almost everything.  At some point it struck me that my hives got significantly worse after I ate a slice of french bread.  I insisted on a blood test. My doctor's thought it wouldn't show anything, gluten doesn't cause hives usually, but went along with it.  It was positive.  And I cleaned out the pantries.  And I bought gluten-free flours.

More doctors, more tests. I definitely have celiac disease.  No one knows why I get hives when I eat gluten but I do.  Perhaps my body was just in overdrive after the Fosamax allergy.  Perhaps it just had enough.  It is not unheard of, but not common either.  

And I have to be very very careful, more careful than before, when my symptoms were purely abdominal.  The tiniest amount of gluten and I erupt.  Three Hershey's nuggets were enough to make my knees and feet erupt in hives and swell so much that I couldn't walk for two days.

Two glasses of ginger ale resulted in swollen feet, lips that looked like hot air balloons, and a hive on my throat that made it difficult to swallow. Who thinks of ginger ale as having gluten?  I do now.  

We are going on a road trip and I have gluten free snacks in the car:  almonds, and raisinettes and potato chips.  We have a list of chain restaurants that have gluten free menus or have gluten free items on their menu and will make the effort to make sure the food is safe.  So much of convenient highway food revolves around bread and flour.  I downloaded some menus and made a list and a file for the car. When we find a nice cafe that has salads or nice simple grilled foods that I can eat we will note it for future trips.

I am going to start baking again but at the moment my emphasis has just been on feeling better, not trying new things.  Besides which, I know I can make excellent gluten-free pasta dough for lasagna and ravioli, or probably whatever else we want.  And I can make a pretty good pie crust too.

I bought this book at Christmas for my brother and kept a copy for myself.  I have had some excellent gluten free breads, cakes and cookies at the Culinary and I am looking forward to trying out the techniques used here.  They are a little different than what I have seen before, but if they work it will be a lot of fun.

Besides, the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had anywhere was a gluten free chocolate chip cookie at the Catarina de' Medici restaurant. 

I know I can't reproduce everything I had before, and I don't even want to, somethings are best remembered for the perfection that they are.

I can remember churros in Madrid.  There will be no more churros.  But I can still have the huge cup of coffee.  And there are plenty of indulgences I can have.  

I can hold on to the memories of eating croissants at the little cafe near our little hideaway hotel in Paris, and although I will miss the croissants I am happy to have the memory.  Besides I can still go to Ladurée, or better yet, Pierre Hermé, for macarons.  Now that is a real treat, and something to look forward to.  And I can make macarons at home as well.  I have done it before, but not recently.  

I admit that I have been lusting after Pierre Hermé's new book, Macaron for a few months now.  I wish we were going to Paris, so that I could eat a macaron at the source and buy the book as well.  I have tried every kind of search I can think of, and I can't find an online vendor that will sell the book and ship it to the United States.    I don't mind having the book in French, but it looks like I will have to wait and hope that there will eventually be an English translation just so that I can get a copy.

As for avoiding gluten, there are far worse fates. Besides how can it be so bad to say I can only eat the best foods, the ones with pure ingredients, without additives, prepared in places where the chefs care about the food they prepare for their clients?  

Comments

[Lisa]

Amazon.uk will ship books from the UK to me...will amazon.fr ship from France to you? Just a thought.

Lisa

[Kay Y]

That is quite the story Mardel! I am glad you figured it out.

[Liana]

You make a limitation sound like a wonderful challenge. What a good attitude, and yes, fresh, delicious food is not a bad thing. Glad you're going to be hives-free, too!

[La Belette Rouge]

I am so sorry you have gone through all of this. I have heard that people who have made the switch to a gluten free diet often feel much better. You have a great attitude about all this and I am sure you will make gluten-free very chic and fabulous.

[materfamilias]

Wow! That sounds like a serious dietary challenge, especially on a road trip. But as you say, having to eat only the foods with pure ingredients can't be all bad. And if there are still macarons in your future, there's reason to be optimistic! I've been coveting the same book, btw, ever since David Lebowitz reviewed it.