You'll Crack Your Head Open!

Zero Stars.  Seriously.  Z.e.r.o….

If you know me in real life, you know that I love my gadgets.   So when I saw a commercial for Tater Mitts, I knew I was definitely going to try them.

They claim that you can peel a potato in eight seconds using Tater Mitts and dispose of the inconvenience of potato peelers forever.  Being as I hate peeling potatoes, I was all over it.

I have to admit that I had visions of peeling potatoes with them on our camping trip, to the amazement of my family.   There would be amazement and in-laws taking turns trying my fascinating new find.  “Rebecca always finds the neatest stuff.”

Soooo not going to happen.  In fact, I’m going to need to bag this sucker back up and stash it in my car to return before my husband gets home or else the story around the campfire will be how I got suckered into yet another product that doesn’t work.   Much like the exploding Egg Wave incident of 1999.

Lets start at the beginning.  I was very excited to see the Tater Mitts at Linens and Things (for 14.99).   I was even more excited to buy them.  I called my best friend on her cell phone.  I could hardly wait to get home and hide them until my husband left for work put them aside until the morning when I could dedicate some time to try them and pre-write my Works for Me Wednesday post at Rocks In My Dryer for the week.   I would be a hero.  I would get views-o-plenty.

Again…  soooo not.

This morning, after the kids had had breakfast and were watching Spongebob a carefully chosen educational video, I opened the box and took them out.

They are your basic blue rubber gloves except they have hard rubber pieces glued to them.   The shape and texture reminds me of the gravel you put in an aquarium, other than being rubber.  The gloves themselves are pretty big – I’m guessing size extra large.   Not exactly sized for my hands, but not a huge deal either.

I put them on and picked up a carefully chosen basic russett potato.  I rubbed as vigorously as I could with huge rubber gloves on my hands.  After about a minute I was getting a small amount of  what really amounted more to surface shredding and grooving (much like anything else would be if scraped across gravel) than peeling.  I could see some small strips of peeled potato so I kept going.  After about another minute (2+ minutes total), I gave up.

I wondered if maybe the glove concept and my apparently freakishly small hands had something to do with this product not working.  Maybe if I took off the glove and held it over the center part of my double sink we might get somewhere.  I grabbed another potato and started that way  We did.  It worked.  It took a lot of elbow grease (much like scrubbing a pan) and about two minutes, but I got most of the peel off.

So after about four minutes total I had one potato that was about 40% peeled and another that was about 75% peeled.

So it CAN be done.  But you can also bake a cake in an Easy-Bake oven over a lightbulb.  But it takes for.e.ver.  Much like the Tater Mitts.

And I don’t have that kind of time.  Especially since now I have to come up with something else to do for Works for Me Wednesday.

Oh well.  Live and learn (to keep your receipts).

I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas lately and beginning to plan it in my head.  I guess mostly because that’s our next big family event we’re hosting.  I always start planning and pondering about the next thing.  No matter how far off it is.

I love Christmas.  The sights.  The smells.  The music.  The food.  The cookies.  Just everything.

But it’s also a very painful time for me.  My mom died of breast cancer in Dec 1993.  My dad died of stomach cancer at 12:03 am on Dec 26, 2004.   I could write pages about how much those two sentences hurt.  But I won’t.  Maybe someday.

I’ve been thinking about all the holiday traditions and Christmases (is that the plural of Christmas?) of my childhood.  My daughter is at the age now that I can remember having the best Christmases when we lived in Virginia from the time I was ages 5-8.  So it’s a little flash-backy.   I love remembering those Christmases, but at the same time it hurts so deep I could never adequately explain it.  So it’s been an odd day for me.

I’ve learned something about myself and God over the years.  If I’m having the urge to do something at an unusual time, there’s usually a reason.  Maybe it will be a harder than usual year for me come December.  Having some of the planning and menu-making done will come in handy as it gets closer.

Therefore, today, on the ridiculous date of July 29th (for pete’s sake), I’ve started planning Christmas.   I even have a handy-dandy Category on my sidebar.

It’s totally going to work in my favor too because we’re in a new house.  The first house I’ve loved since we lived in Virginia 30 years ago.  Seriously.  The next time I move will be when our kids help us move to the retirement resort in Hawaii (believing for big things here… LOL).

I want to get Christmas decorations that are specific to specific places in the house.  I want my kids to remember that one snowman that always went on the left side of the mantle and the santa picture that went on the wall next to the front door every year.   Those kind of nostalgic, cozy things.

So you’ll have to forgive me for getting all Christmasy at this time of year.   By December, I may very well be entrenched in a stubborn case of the bah-humbugs.

Today I’m going to be talking about how to create safe areas in which to keep your food and ingredients.

In order to keep your food and ingredients safe in a shared kitchen, you’ll need to be honest with yourself about what you’re dealing with as far as the other people in your house are concerned.   For the most part it isn’t reasonable to expect everyone who enters your kitchen to be just as careful as you are with your food.   So you have to plan accordingly.   Especially at first because everyone is learning this along with you.

The best case scenario would be that you have an entire cabinet in which to keep your pantry foods and an entire shelf or drawer in the refrigerater in which to keep your refrigerated foods.

If you can do that,  find a way to visually block off those areas.   A cheap and easy way to do this is with brightly colored post-it notes, a piece of paper with a note indicating that this is your area (For Dad Only!!  or Gluten-free only, please don’t touch!!)  taped to the cabinet, shelf or drawer.

If you don’t have enough space to commandeer whole areas, you can also go the box route.   In most stores such as Walmart, Target, etc. you can get various sizes of plastic boxes with lids.  (Make sure you measure the areas where you’re going to keep your food so you don’t end up with boxes that don’t fit.)   You can put your food in the boxes without anyone having to worry about using the wrong thing.

If you don’t have the space to do that, you can also label the lids of all your foods and secure them with rubber bands.   In theory just a note or label written on it should keep people out, but I’ve learned from experience that most people are on autopilot and just grab the mayo, peanut butter or whatever and don’t pay too much attention to notes.  So a rubber band usually does the trick to remind them that they shouldn’t be using it.

You probably won’t have to go to such extremes forever.   Once the whole household is used to everything you should be able to relax a bit.  But when you’re in the learning/healing process, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

This is my first post in a series of how to create a shared kitchen for people on the gluten-free diet.  A shared kitchen means that you have gluten-free people and non-GF people in the same household.

Also, leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions about this, or anything gluten-related that I can address in future blog entries.  I’d love to help.

If you’re just getting started on the gluten-free diet, a kitchen makeover is essential.   In the best case scenario, my advice would be to have a gluten-free household at least for a few months in order to help in the recovery of the person recovering from gluten-induced health problems.    But that isn’t always possible.

If you have decided to have a shared kitchen, or having a completely GF kitchen just isn’t possible, there are some ways to make it work.

You will need:

- Safe ingredients and a safe place to store them.

- Safe cookware, bakeware and cooking utensils, and a safe place to store them.

- Safe cleaning items and a safe place to store them.

I guess the best place to start is an explanation of WHY all of this is necessary.  The short answer is that gluten is sticky.  It sticks to and in everything.  Remember making paste out of flour and water in elementary school?  Well, it’s the gluten that makes makes it stick.

Since gluten causes an autoimmune reaction (not an allergic reaction) in people who are intolerant to it, as soon as even a tiny amount of gluten enters your system that reaction starts.   It’s more comparable to food poisoning than it is to an allergic reaction, because your immune system incorrectly thinks that gluten is a toxin and will do everything it can to get it out of your system.

It is very important for someone on the gluten-free diet to have complete understanding and cooperation when it comes to their food and food preparation.   If not, their recovery will be slow and they may develop worsening symptoms or other related health problems.

Well, that’s it from me for right now.  More to come soon.

I bought some of those learn to read books a few days ago (for Ruby not me – haha).  I had a set several months ago but with moving, I can only find a few of them.  So I figured I’d get one of the other sets and start over.  Plus, that way I can see if she is actually reading and not just memorizing the story, ya know?

Well…

She KNOWS the letter sounds backwards and forwards.  If I ask her to sound out a word, she does it perfectly.  But when I have her go from sounding the word out to putting the sounds together quicker to form the word, she automatically looks at the picture and just starts throwing out guesses.  She doesn’t even connect that the letter sounds actually form the word.

So I looked online (like I do) and apparently for many years in our state they did a “whole language” approach where they encourage the kids to guess at the words or even skip the words to see if they can frickin’ frackin’ “figure out” what the word might be.  MIGHT.

Are you kidding me?????

The word is HAT.  HAT.  Not chapeau.  Not fedora.  HAT.  There are no other frickin ways to spell HAT.  Hhhh-Aaaa-Tttt.  Hat.  Don’t teach the kids to look at the picture and guess.  It’s HAT.  H. A. T.  Hat.

So tonight.  I was trying to teach Ruby and encourage her that everything is hard until you know how to do it.  We’re just going to take it one word at a time.   Don’t worry about it.  Mom’s here to help.

Now sound it out.  Hhhh…  Aaaaa….  Tttt…..  Good.  Oh my gosh!  That perfect.  You know all that?  Now put those sounds together.   What word does Hhh..Aaa..Ttt.. make?  (eyes go up to the picture)  Fan!  No sweetie.  Hh..Aa..Tt..  Sun!  No.  Let’s look again..  (defeated distraction – what’s that on your nose mommy?)  Let’s read this word.  (looking at her fingers)  It’s okay, we’re just learning.  You’ll get it.  Let’s sound it out.  You’re good at that.  Hh.Aa.Tt.  Hh..At..  At!!  No sweetie not at, but you’re very close.  (Squirming…)  At is a.t.  See, this part is at.  You’re almost there.  Now listen to the first sound.  What’s that first sound?  Hh..  Right.  Now the second part, a.t. says at.  So what do you think that says?  (Looks at picture – no, for the love of God NOOOO!!!!)  Sun!

GAH!!!!!!!!!!

And for this we sent her to preschool…????

I think I’m going to get some flashcards.

I remember my mom telling me about why she decided to teach me to read before I started school.  The public schools there had a similar teaching concept back in the 70’s.  The concept was that kids could read by remembering the shape of the word.  I don’t know if they did this when anyone else was going to school, but do you remember how you had to draw around the shape of a word?  Well, the concept was that if you could memorize the shape of the word, you could read the word.   My mom was SOOOO not buyin’ it.   At all.

My mom teaching me how to actually READ the words vs. my husband being taught to read with these concepts shows how well it works.  My husband is very smart, but doesn’t know (nor care about) the difference between the word “peasant” and the word “pheasant”.   I blame that on the schools we went to (we went to the same schools from 7th grade on).  The teachers always let the math-smart kids slide on everything else.  On the other hand, I can accurately spell (and say) the word choledochoduodenoscopy.  And sphygmomanometer.  And psychiatry.  And the different spellings and usages of there, their and they’re.

I swear if kindergarten does this same “guessing” B.S.  I’m going to be so upset.  I already have a husband who is grammar and spelling illiterate.  I’m not going to look the other way and end up with a child who spells “fan” H-A-T.

I’m sure they’re gonna love me at kindergarten  —   What do you mean they’re supposed to guess at what H-A-T spells?  Sun is NOT a good guess.  I don’t care if you’re trying to build up her self esteem.  Are you hippies or something?   You’re using the wrong usage of their.  It should be there.  As in – “Is there wheat in that fingerpaint?”

sigh…

whimper…

Gah…!!

This idea came to me while I was reading a potluck cookbook.   I haven’t tried it, but I thought it was worth a mention if anyone wants to try it.

If you are lucky enough to have a group of people at your school/church/etc. who also have gluten intolerance, get together and plan a potluck within a potluck.   Plan who will bring the main dishes, the side dishes and the desserts.   Even if there are just a few people and you have to make more than one dish, it’s always fun to try other people’s favorite dishes.   Even if it’s just your family, to eat safely at a potluck you have to cook your whole meal anyway.  Why not bring it all along to share?

Here are some of my ideas for how to navigate sharing in the main potluck with the regular people.  It’s always fun to watch non-GF people look so surprised when our food is actually good.   “Oh my gosh!  This pasta tastes like pasta!”

First of all, ask the event coordinator if they will allow you to set up your area in a corner of the room.    If you can’t get a corner (or you have just a few dishes), you can create an area along a wall with a back table and a front table.  You’ll be setting up an area where along the wall(s) you’ll be making a main food area.   Then you’ll take a couple more tables as a front, presentation area where you can put the food out to share with the rest of the potluck.  You’ll also need some sort of indication of a Do Not Enter area.  Crepe paper streamers should work fine.

How do you do that and still keep the gluten-free food gluten-free?  Are we talking about everyone making two whole entire dishes of everything?  Nope.  Not at all.

My idea is – individual servings in paper bowls placed on the front tables, thereby keeping the main dish that someone brought still safely gluten-free.  Ta-Da!!

I would have the area manned by at least one person so that questions can be answered, ingredients confirmed, new bowls put out, etc.    You can also put a sign up saying if anyone is on the GF diet, you can serve from the main dish so that you can make sure they get a GF serving.   You’d just have to decide on some sort of labeling system so people know what you’re serving.

Recipes can be printed out to share too.  Just about every time celiac comes up in conversation nowadays I hear that someone’s friend, cousin, hairdresser, etc. is either on or trying the gluten-free diet.  Having recipes to share is always something that people appreciate.

I think this would work really well.  Let me know if you try it.   I’ll let you know if I do too. 

We’re going camping next weekend.  I want to have the food under control to the point where I can relax and enjoy everything else.  I want to know what’s for breakfast, lunch dinner, snacks and desserts.  I may go so far as to print out a schedule.   Because once I organize something, I don’t want my carefully prepared gluten-free food being flug willy-nilly about the campground.

So… if we want good food (and we do) I’ve got to start planning NOW.   I’m not sure if we’re staying two or three nights yet, so I’ve got to prep for about 3+ days worth of food.   Plus, taking into account the varied appetites of a 3yo and a 5yo, I need to bring every GF snack food I can lay my hands on.   The good thing is that we’ve got a campstove so I can really do everything other than bake out there.

Hey!  This is kind of like Dinner Impossible.

Here’s my list of probable meals

DINNERS -

Chili – easy for the first night

Hamburgers and grilled potatoes

Steaks or tri-tip and sweet potatoes in foil (?)

Sides – mostly salad and raw veggies

LUNCH CHOICES -

Sandwiches

Pizza (if I’ve got time to premake it)

Tacos

Taquitos (Delimex beef in corn tortillas)

Hotdogs (no bun)

BREAKFASTS -

Pancakes

Eggs and bacon

Crackers w/cheese or PB (my kids like this for breakfast)

SNACKS -

Cool Ranch Doritos

Cheetoes

Fruit snacks

Cut fruit

Carrots

Chips and salsa

Craisins

GF Candy

GF Pretzels

DESSERTS -

S’Mores (of course)

Cookies and ice cream (? might get one of those ice cream ball things and some mix-ins ?)

Some sort of cake (maybe angelfood?)

————————–

So…  I’ve got to premake -

Graham crackers

Hamburger buns

Pizza crusts

Cake

Bread

Pancakes

Taco meat

Chili  (Hubby’s job..)

I think that’s it.  Should be easy enough.  Plus, I’ll be able to share all my recipes, tricks, tips and gluten-free products for everything.     I’ve got a great idea for the s’mores too!

It should be a post-er-iffic week.

I have mixed feelings about writing about this.   On the one hand I want people to know that this helps me.  On the other hand I don’t want people to think that this is a cure or a way to eat gluten.

The best way to put it is that for me, taking GlutenEase (note the fancy linkage) for a glutening is like taking DayQuil for a cold or flu.   It helps.  It helps a lot.  But in the end you still don’t feel good.  It’s just not as bad.   Basically, it takes the edge off and I can go on with my life reasonably well.

GlutenEase isn’t something that’s been FDA approved, of course.  So anyone taking it is taking it at their own risk.  The ingredients, although identified and explained, are a mystery as far as long-term effects, etc.

I’ve always felt reasonably comfortable taking herbal supplements because there is generally a long and extensive history of how herbs effect people, and any potential side-effects or contraindications are easily identified.  Not so with GlutenEase, so it’s something I would only take after a glutening and not to get all experimental with trying to eat something gluteny.  I’m not willing to find out in 10 years that the magic that makes this work also causes liver damage or something.  Sorry.  I’ve spent too many years being sick to take that kind of chance.   Plus, there’s no way to know if GlutenEase just blocks the symptoms while the gluten is creating harikari in your intestines, nervous system, muscles, bones, etc.  or if it really does stop the reaction completely.

For me though, I’ve decided that occasional use for accidental glutenings is worthwhile.

I do have kids who are also gluten-intolerant.  And there is no way I’d give them something like this.  My concerns about my using it are multipied 100x for them.   On the rare occasion we all get glutened, I don’t take GlutenEase.  I’d just feel too guilty feeling better while they’re still miserable.

** UPDATE **

Since this is one of my most popular posts, I wanted to give an update on it.

I have had one heck of an awful month with getting glutened.  I think I got glutened 6 or 7 times in one month!!   That’s more than I usually get glutened in six months!    I’ve replaced some things in my kitchen – a wooden spoon, an old wisk (that was a stupid thing to keep), a soap dispenser that may have become contaminated and the dog food.  One or all of them may have been the culprit.   Let’s just say thank goodness for glutenease because without it I would have really been up a creek.

So here’s the bad news – I’m dairy intolerant again.   My villi are wearing down.

You may not be familiar with villous atrophy in celiac disease or why the reoccurance of dairy intolerance is important here.   This is how it was explained to me by some sciencey-types:

When someone has celiac disease, the main symptom that they look for to confirm the diagnosis is the wearing away of the lining of the small intestine.   A healthy intestinal lining actually consists not of a smooth surface, but of millions of tiny finger-like projections called villi.   Those villi are actually what absorb nutrients from the foods we eat.   When someone has celiac disease, those villi are attacked and destroyed.  Sometimes they are just worn down, and sometimes they are completely destroyed down to nothing.

Interestingly, it’s at the very tips of the villi that the enzymes to digest dairy are produced.   Which is why it’s often true that a person who has been diagnosed with celiac or gluten intolerance is also intolerant to dairy.   Once gluten has been removed from the diet, in most cases the villi begin to heal and actually grow back.  Including those little tips that help to digest dairy.

You can see where I’m going with this.

I think it’s pretty obvious that although Glutenease does help control symptoms, the intestinal damage IS still happening.  And it doesn’t take long at all.  Kind of surprising what can happen in a month. Which proves out the concerns I had about it initially.

I still believe it is useful and I will continue to use it just as I have been.   I still don’t think I’m doing anyone any favors by not being able to get out of the bathroom and/or the bed for days if I’ve been glutened if I don’t have to be.   Just being able to live my life anyway, despite not feeling well, is enough of an improvement for me.

I think that this just underlines that there is currently no treatment other than strict adherance to the gluten-free diet.

Mostly recovered again.   Glutenease rocks. 

I’ve been doing some baking again.   Let’s see, this week I’ve made french bread, cheese crackers and graham crackers.  They all turned out good!

I decided to make myself learn how to do the cool links and stuff before I blog about them.  Just wanted to say I’m up and running again.

I’m getting really, really tired of this.

Mystery glutening #2 in the last couple weeks.  I was just starting to feel back to normal too.

No idea what happened.   I might have inhaled some dust when I fed the dog.  Might have gotten it from Hubby via a goodnight peck.  Maybe something got cross-contaminated somehow.   Hubby has been so busy at work that he’s eating lunch out.   Maybe he had something on his hands.  If I could figure out WHERE it came from, I could throw it away or avoid it.

Blah.

I hate mystery glutenings because I have no frickin’ frackin’ idea what happened.   Again.

Interesting to note though that because I’ve been taking St. John’s Wort, what is usually  brain-buzzing insomnia with terrifying nightmares once I finally get to sleep, ends up being brain-buzzing insomnia with weird dreams once I finally get to sleep.   Definitely an improvement.

Good to know.

So anyway…  if there are any scientists out there reading this – Here’s what I want:

I want you to start genetically engineering all gluten-containing grains so that gluten will fluoresce under blacklight.  Okay….  Go!

I’ll expect weekly status reports.