Food for thought and to eat!

For all my readers a big apology, the blogger sight has been down all day yesterday and I couldn't write anything! It did show me how addicted I have become to this whole blogging world! I'm loving it!

As promised I'm going to include the 'Recipe of the Day' and 'Restaurant of the Week', though my plan is when I get a little bit of assistance to have a separate button at the top of the page for the recipes and restaurants, so there isn't too much info in the blog posting. But please be patient with me as I get it all started.

I have been thinking about what restaurant to feature in restaurant of the week and thought I would share a mayhem experience of mine, dining as a coeliac. As those of you who can't eat gluten or indeed have any allergy know, it's all about the attitude of the people at the restaurant, the chef and their understanding of what is gluten or the food your allergic too. I've been to places which actually advertise a Gluten Free Menu, I was very excited! That meant I didn't have to agonise over the menu and figure out what I could eat then go into discussion about it with the waitress. I ordered a risotto at this venue (I won't name and shame just yet), aside from the fact there was way to much in the plate, by the time I finished it didn't even look like I touched the sides, but as we were sitting chatting, my stomach started to gurgle.

 The pufferfish slowly reared it's ugly head and I had to unbutton my jeans in the restaurant, then the pains started. By the time we left I really wasn't feeling good, we called in at my sister in laws on the way home, my first stop was the bathroom. Kind of embarrassing.............

So my conclusion was yes  there was gluten in the risotto despite the claims that there were not! I figured that the most likely source was the stock as most stock, unless specified (I buy Massel), has gluten in it. Surprisingly I did venture back to eat there some months later, rather reluctantly and I did voice my concerns to the chef. What annoyed me was her attitude, she may not have even been working there when I had the reaction, but she was so defensive claiming that it was the Parmesan cheese that had gluten in it! (never heard of that before). But to mean the most appropriate response is to apologise and reassure the customer.
Restaurant of the Week
I've had a few thoughts as to what would be the first restaurant to feature here and I'm going with something that I only ate yesterday. The Argyle Inn in Camden. I had lunch with a girlfriend yesterday, a  $10 steak with chips and a salad and the deals on weekends too. Admittedly there wasn't that much I could eat on the menu but I decided on the steak. All the sauces that go with it have gluten in it, so the waitress and chef were very accommodating and made me some mushrooms, and put them on top of the steak. The meal was massive but most importantly no reaction! I would have every faith that whatever else you ordered on the menu would be prepared with care and ensured that no little bits of gluten were in your meal!

Recipe of the Day

Butterscotch Pudding

Pudding
70g butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/3 cup flour (combination of rice flour and gluten free cornflour, or other gf flour in the pantry)
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoon milk

Butterscotch Sauce
1 cup cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
20g butter

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Cut butter into small cubes and place butter and sugar into bowl/mixmaster etc, mix until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix well. Sift flours into a separate bowl, making sure the flours are mixed well and add flour mixture and milk to to butter mixture and mix until just combined.
Put mixture into a baking dish (I use a small lasagna/baking dish) and bake for 20-25minute (until the skewer comes out clean).
While the pudding is cooking, combine all ingredients for the sauce in a saucepan on medium to low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has slightly thickened.
Cut the pudding into appropriate serving sizes, place in a bowl and drizzle the sauce over the top. Serve with ice cream or cream
Enjoy
xxxxx

Let the games begin

It was officially, I had coeliac disease and most importantly an answer to my problems! (well some anyway). See apart from the puffer fish syndrome (previous post refers to massively swollen stomach as puffer fish), a side affect of being a coeliac is being anemic. And that I certainly was, there were times at work were I would be laying down in storerooms after sculling a power aide to get some energy and knowing that I was too tired to even get in the car and drive home. I remember visiting my god daughter in the hospital and the pictures of me holding her look like I was the one that gave birth a few hours before, pale faced, massive bags and then I nearly passed out at the front of the hospital.

So I guess you might understand when I say that I was kind of excited to know that there was a reason why my body was behaving how it was, and that I finally had a solution!

Most people will say that when they find out they are a coeliac or gluten intolerant that they are completely overwhelmed by the amount of food that gluten is in! I thought okay, bread, pasta, pizza and flour was definitely out and that was about it. But boy was I wrong! I remember thinking that I was sorted for breakfast as I had already converted to rice bubbles after I had the wonderful experience of the visit from channel 9 and 7 camera crews! After coming home from the specialist I thought I better check the ingredients of the beloved rice bubbles just in case,  and I was shocked to read 'gluten containing cereals' (barley)! WTF!!!!!! Once I got over the shock of that I realised I could eat porridge, nice and healthy, right! Ba Bomb! wrong again Although this one I didn't discover until an appointment with the dietitian 4 weeks later!

And then there's the bread!!!!!!!! Words can't really do gluten free bread justice! Aside the fact that it will send you broke (the itty bitty small loaves from the supermarkets will set you back about $5.50!!!), it's holy (not in the religious sense), small and goey like in texture! The most tolerable way to eat gluten free bread is toasted, but be advised that the dial on the toaster needs to up fairly high, then the crust burn (I've frequently set the smoke detector off) but the bread often isn't cooked properly! I think cooked gluten free toast tastes a bit like a crumpet (ahh crumpets remember those!!!), but I'm sure that if they came up with a vaccine (it is something scientist are trialing) and I could eat a crumpet again I would think that I was nuts by making this comparison. 

This talk of bread reminds me of the motivation I had to start this blog, to share not only my experiences but places where you can get gluten free food. I have yet to find a bakery in the Camden/Narellan area that make gluten free bread. However my parents have found some great places in Wollondilly that sell some great gf bread. I can't find the exact name of the bakery, but the bakery at Tahmoor in the Woolworths Shopping Complex, sells gf bread, it's made to order though, so place your orders in and the bread is baked on Wednesday's. The other place is the Common Ground Bakery at Razorback (the former Wool Away Wool Shed), this is seriously the best gf bread I have tasted! Mum picked me up 2 loaves of apple, rum and raisin on Sunday and I only have 2 slices left!!!! (small loaves remember, so not that much of a pig).

I hope that this helps some people and I promise next post I will start to share some recipes.

From the beginning

As I pondered over what to write...., where to start? The logical answer came to mind, from the begining! So here it goes......

For as long as I remember I've always had ummmmm issues (the most polite word I could think of) with my stomach. I remember as a little girl having a massive swollen belly, but the amazing thing was it wasn't always there, it was like a magic trick, it would come and go at different times! And the ummmm wind, was never a problem, dad always used to tell me 'it's better to let it out and stink a little, than hold it in and be a cripple', I like to think that that was my mantra! I know there are people reading this who are thinking, 'I can't believe she wrote that', but those people reading who suffer a gluten intolerance of any kind will understand, or even have a private chuckle. And the not so fun stuff like to horrible stomach cramps. I remember many time when I was little doubled over in pain, with my parents and doctors thinking it could be a case of rumbling appendix.

As I recollect, my symptoms increased as I got older, the more damage was probably being done. The funny thing was everytime I ate pasta, or bread I would get stomach pain and my stomach would blow up like a puffer fish. I remember about 16-17 when I got my licence and started going out with friends, we would go to a restaurant (Pizza Hut is a classy restaurant when your 17, remember all you can eat pizza!!!!), and 30 minutes later I would start to get massive cramps in my stomach and the puffer fish would begin.These attacks were often so bad that I was admitted to hospital and subjected to some horrible very intrusive tests!! This extreme pain isn't just because I was an undiagnosed coeliac, at 17 I was diagnosed with endometrosis (and have since had 6 operations for this). This lovely combination of coeliac and endometrosis isn't a very nice mix and is particularly painful.  But on the lighter side, for many years I refused to admit that my issues had anything to do with food. I remember my parents pointing out on many occassions that the puffer fish only occured after eating pizza, pasta, bread etc. I think it was because I loved this food that I was in denial.

As the years passed by I began to minimise my intact of gluten rich foods like bread, but my ignorance of how many foods contained gluten, and my denial meant I kept on eating gluten. The bloating (puffer fish) incidents became more intense and more frequent (particularly when the endo was playing up)! I remember looking at t-shirts and tops that were fitted, thinking there is no way in hell I would risk wearing that (I had no knowledge of when the puffer fish would emerge) and end up looking 5 months pregnant. I even brought what I called pull up pants (not the nappies for kids) but pants with no zipper or button to accomodate the puffer fish and would wear these as often as possible. So nice flowing pregnant like tops and dresses were my best friend with my pull up pants!(I had 2 pairs). And on those occasions were I wore jeans and the puffer fish emerged, there would be unbuttoning and unzipping happening in the restaurant, movie etc and I would be thanking god for the lovely flowing top I had on.

I was eventually referred to a gastro specialist after being anemic and receving iron injections, we needed to find out what the problem was. I remember talking to the doctor and telling him about the puffer fish whenever I had food such as bread, he was very arrogant and said 'oh so you've been reading magazines and looking on the net and you think you're a coeliac!', I looked at him and said 'what's a coeliac?', the arrogant grin was soon wiped off his face. A few weeks later sitting back in his surgery getting the results of the tests from the channel 9 and channel 7 camera crews (colonoscopy and endoscopy), the doctor says 'you've got coeliac disease, you thought you had that didn't you!'.

Finally I got an answer to my problems, the puffer fish was about to become extinct!!!!!!!!!!

And the mishaps and mayhem of the gluten free diet began........