Sarah says: Yum, one of my favorite beers is Miller Lite. It's simple, basic, and totally satisfying after a busy weekend. I realize it's kind of cheating to mention beer on my wine blog, but if there is anything I've learned lately, it's that people cheat. It's in our nature to want to be the best at things, and if there is a method to achieve more, to be better, to find an easy way around, we'll do it. Just look at the number of athletes recently being discovered as having used drugs to enhance their performance, cheaters. Has anyone played Jon recently on Words with Friends? Yup, he's cheating. Work, even in the most professional settings, you're constantly hearing of people lying on resumes and well, cheating, to make themselves look like the best candidate.
Want to know what I've learned you cannot cheat at? Gluten free cooking. This is freaking hard. Here's what I've made so far...the infamous muffins that I mentioned here, 7 loaves of bread (6 of which ended up in the garbage), pizza (which was sort of cheating since I purchased the crust, and just added the toppings), spaghetti & mac-n-cheese (which is really just a matter of buying the right noodles), chicken nuggets (which was actually fairly tasty, but Liam still prefers frozen, which Jon managed to find some this weekend, thank god!!), pancakes (which Liam ate, but didn't ask for 2nds the way he usually does with pancakes), stew (which is the same as normal stew, except I used a different flour to thicken it up a bit). I've also been making more stuff that is naturally gluten free, chicken salad, tacos (as long as you use corn tortillas), pot roast, bean soup. I discovered we LOVE tacos because they are simple. Rice chex cereal is the easiest breakfast, and the mini flavored rice cakes are the easiest snacks. Here are some pics of my gluten free adventures.
The bread has been by far my biggest challenge. I've made several loafs that turned out tiny, and tasted like 5 cups of flour and starch condensed into 4 inches of bread. Yuck. I had one explode on me. And my closest attempt, but it stuck to the pan when I tried getting it out, so it sort of broke in half and fell apart. It actually tasted pretty good, but I couldn't use it for sandwiches like I want. Luckily for me, I just discovered this bakery that is 100% gluten free! Rumi's Passion in Plymouth, my new favorite place. They sell bread, cakes, hot dog buns, cookies, brownies, pastas, pizza, cinnamon rolls, everything is gluten free. I bought some cupcakes and hot dog buns this weekend, all received rave reviews by Liam. I have determined that I'm giving up on my bread making career. Even if I get it to work out, I'm spending at least $4 - $5 on ingredients per loaf of bread. Depending on the location, and what is on sale that week, I can get a ready made (actually tasty) loaf for about $4.75. I'm not saving enough, if anything, to make it worth it anymore. Plus the amount of time it takes is more time than I have to spare. I will continue to seek out other gluten free recipes, but bread is no longer one of them!
For anyone interested, I did learn a few things along the way. The bread cooks best if the milk and eggs are at room temp vs. being cold. Gluten free dough is the stickiest, hardest stuff to manage ever, be prepared with lots of water. Gorgonzola bean flour is your friend.
Guess I'm just a cheater, I'm taking the easy way out, but who can blame me, it's human nature!
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