Gluten-Free Girl: The Book
Gluten-Free Girl, Shauna James Ahern’s Web site and blog, was the genesis for the recently published Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back and How You Can Too
This is the story of a woman who has loved food, beginning with a 1970’s-80’s childhood and adolescence packed with bottled salad dressings, Oscar Meyer variety-pack meats and squishy Wonder Bread. As her tastes elevated from Velveeta on Wheat Thins to Mahon on quinoa crackers, she gradually eschewed these synthetic foods so far removed from their natural origin. But with wheat and other glutens being at the core of the standard Western diet, it was virtually impossible to avoid them without a near-militaristic approach. Ahern describes the extremity to which gluten is embedded in our world – present not only in the obvious form of bread, crackers, pasta and cereal, but salad dressings, mass-processed deli meats, candy and popsicles – even lipstick.
lox on gluten-free bagel
Diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2005 after a lifetime of undiagnosed and nebulous health issues leading up to a near-fatal car accident, Ahern chose to embrace the disease’s gluten-free mandated diet as a blessing rather than a sentence. Eliminating gluten not only allowed her to feel healthy and vibrant for, essentially, the first time in her life, but also opened her eyes and mouth to a world of tastes to which she had been previously oblivious. Sorghum, millet, amaranth, teff, rice, to name only a few, are grains and flours that are free of gluten, contain more protein and iron than wheat flour, and offer textures and tastes not found in the ubiquitous wheat and other glutenous grains.
gluten-free brownies, fig cookies and chocolate banana bread
Although I have no wheat or gluten allergies, I chose to incorporate many of these grains into my meals, nonetheless. The way I explain my amaranth and tapioca flour-laced potluck contributions to dubious friends is this: “Yeah, I’ll eat apples. Apples are just fine. But why would I eat only apples when there is a big, beautiful bowlful of oranges, nectarines, persimmons, grapes, raspberries and cherries available to me? In other words, why is everyone eating only apples – or, wheat, as it were, when there are several other delicious grains to be had? In the name of variety and good eatin’, it just doesn’t add up.
Several recipes peppered throughout the book give instructions for gluten-free banana bread, crusty sorghum bread, piecrust, and a chilled millet salad with jicama and mango.
The recipes are not limited to starch-based dishes and baked goods; a roasted cauliflower with Spanish paprika and cocoa powder was one of my contributions to our family’s Thanksgiving meal recently. I will say that the three-step cooking process of blanching, sautéing and then roasting seemed a little superfluous - and used far more pots and pans than one vegetable side dish warrants, but that Russel Wright bowlful of earthy, dusty red cauliflower was a winner, even at the kids’ table.
I also gave the pizza crust recipe a whirl, proudly toting my par-baked rectangle to a pizza-making party. This is not, as Ahern fairly warns, your father’s pizza crust. (Unless, of course, your father happens to be Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, Inc.). But if you have a taste for a full-bodied and toothsome flatbread, you will not be disappointed. I liked it, and so did a few other equal-opportunity pizza-eaters in attendance. In any case, it offered a variety amongst the traditional chewy, white flour crusts.
gluten-free pizza crust
I have referred to the Web site over the past year or so, using it as a resource for recipes as well as general guidelines on substituting non-wheat flours in baked-good recipes. A highlight of glutenfreegirl.com is the expert and enticing photographs (shown on this post) shot by Ahern, which are sadly absent from the book. This seems a shame.
When I found out that the author would be signing copies of her book at the aforementioned Bob’s Red Mill (the gluten-free and whole grain mother ship) in Milwaukie, Oregon last month, I made the short trip from my home in Portland. I was, of course, excited to have the chance to meet her in person and buy eight varieties of wheat and gluten-free flours and grains, all in one fell swoop. As full of life in person as she comes across in her book and blog, Ahern greeted my friend and me at the entrance of the store with a glowing smile and a basket of brownie bites made from one of Bob’s several gluten-free baking mixes. She also jotted-down the formula for her preferred all-purpose gluten-free baking mix (1 part sorghum flour, 1 part tapioca starch, 1 part potato starch), which I appreciated very much, and with which I experienced successful and pleasing results in a recent gluten-free adaptation of a favorite pumpkin cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking. Thanks, Shauna!
Oh, and the aforementioned love story? The icing on the rice and tapioca flour cake for Ms. Ahern: her newfound lease on life led her, at almost 40 years old, to a man that, honestly sounds way too good to be true. You’ll have to read the book for details of this veritable Harlequinian fairy tale, but let me tell you that this is the only gluten-free resource guide/memoir that has ever brought tears to my eyes. I actually cried at the end of the book; Ahern could surely find work creating scripts for Hollywood-made romance flicks - once this writers’ strike ever gets resolved, that is. I’ll even forgive the walking through the grocery store, as the author shameless reports, with-hands-in-each-other’s-back-pockets a la 10th grade. She earned it.
All photos of food above courtesy of glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com
Book jacket photo courtesy of amazon.com
