This book is the culmination of a personal journey that included years of trials, disappointments, research, and joy. It is geared toward a specific and ever-increasing population, the wheat- and gluten-intolerant, and it comes with a very personal and intriguing story.
In 1996, I married a young, bright, enthusiastic woman and we began planning for a hopeful future and a large family. It soon became clear, however, that we were not completely in control of our destiny. While she was in graduate school, Angela’s health took a slow but progressive turn for the worse. After several months of fatigue, digestive symptoms, and unexplained aches and pains, even more symptoms emerged: rashes, hair loss, peripheral neuropathies (tingling in fingers/toes), muscle weakness, numbness and pain, and headaches, and then a complete shutdown of her reproductive system. Countless doctor visits with numerous specialists followed. Their diagnoses included Epstein-Barr virus, chronic fatigue syndrome, undetectable Lyme disease, adrenal dysfunction, and multiple sclerosis, yet no tests were conclusive. Angela continued to work and to plod through each day, but she was beginning to forget what it felt like to be “well.” Some days were so bad that she opted to take out life insurance at the age of twenty-nine. Instead of planning for a baby and decorating a nursery, we began contemplating her seemingly eventual funeral. After she had suffered for almost three years, a family member sent us an article detailing a digestive disorder called celiac disease. That started the ball rolling.
Celiac disease, as explained by Peter H. R. Green, M.D., director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, is a multisystem disorder that begins in the small intestine. The disease is triggered by gluten, the primary protein found in wheat, barley, and rye grains, which causes an immune inflammatory response in the cells that line the small intestine and results in the flattening of the intestinal villa. The damage caused in the small intestine renders the body unable to absorb nutrients properly, causing a general malabsorption that leads to varied and complex physical symptoms. Celiac disease is now considered one of the most common and underdiagnosed hereditary autoimmune disorders in the United States. Treatment is easy: no medicine, no therapy, just strict lifelong adherence to a gluten-free diet.
This sounded simple enough, so Angela decided to give it a try. Day one without bread, pasta, cereal, pastries, cake, muffins, and so on wasn’t too bad, and so she began day two similarly, with eggs and bacon for breakfast, chicken and carrots for lunch, and grilled fish, baked potato, and beans for dinner. As early as day two on the diet, the symptoms began disappearing. By days three and four, there was no going back: the headaches were gone, the numbness had ended, digestion was normal, her fingernails began growing, and her spirits were lifting. Within three months of no gluten, her gut and body were healing and the hormones that had shut down were beginning to be produced again. It became clear that Angela had adult-onset celiac disease, and our hope of resuming normal life activities, and of one day having a family, was back on the horizon. It did, however, take nearly four years of strict adherence to the gluten-free lifestyle (along with the prayers of our priests and our friends) to finally conceive, but with no doctors and no drugs involved! And so, every day we revel in our beautiful, healthy young sons, Joseph Anthony and Andrew Robert.
Angela has always said that she doesn’t miss gluten, and that nothing could taste good enough to make her want to ingest it again. But I couldn’t help but notice her wistful look when we passed by a bakery, or when various dishes like certain soups or pasta dishes arrived in a restaurant, or at Thanksgiving dinner when Grandma dished out the stuffing. Once in a while I heard, “Gee, that banana bread smells great,” or “I wish I could have a bowl of clam chowder,” and “Remember when I could eat chocolate cream pie?” And so, with a lifelong love of cooking, a culinary arts degree from Johnson and Wales University, and the desire to create good gluten-free meals and desserts to keep my wife healthy, I dove into experimenting. Using various combinations of chestnut, sorghum, tapioca, corn, and rice flours, as well as many of the gluten-free products on the market today, I began to develop a repertoire of dishes that Angela could eat. I eventually began conducting gluten-free cooking demonstrations for support groups, friends, and natural foods stores such as Wild Oats and Whole Foods. At the demos, I often posed the question to those in the crowd: If I were to create a cookbook, what kinds of dishes would you be interested in making? “We want to know everything—how to make easy soups, appetizers, entrées, and desserts!” was always the answer.
Gluten Free Every Day Cookbook is truly a labor of love: my love for the culinary arts; my love for my wife and my desire for her to stay healthy, strong, and happy; and a deep and resounding love for our children. Perhaps our boys are the real inspiration, for without the existence of a gluten-free diet for their mother, they may never have been conceived.
And so it is with hope and pride that I share this story, a number of our favorite recipes, and some invaluable information that I have learned along the way. The recipes have been tried, tested, and tweaked by my best critics, including those with and without gluten intolerance. This has been a personal goal: that any person tasting these dishes would not even notice that they are gluten free.
This book contains recipes for fabulous baked dishes, including White Chocolate-Strawberry Pie, Almond Biscotti, and Bittersweet Chocolate-Walnut Cake, along with soups such as Corn, Potato, and Leek Chowder and Chocolate-Espresso Chili. The recipes for entrées are varied and interesting, such as Hazelnut-Encrusted Salmon with Cilantro-Lime Crème, Shrimp and Vegetable Pad Thai, and Chicken Enchilada Casserole; and among the side dishes are Tri-Spiced Onion Rings, Smoked Gouda Polenta, and Candied Sweet Potatoes. The book also contains glossaries and information about essential ingredients and techniques, as well as tips for eating away from home.
I hope you will enjoy reading and using this book as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Mangia, mangia!