My very first posting!

I can't believe it, I finally did it.  Yes! 

Over the last year I have been cooking, baking and taking pictures of almost everything that comes out of my oven, well except the things I have thrown away!  It has not always been a stairway to heaven, but rather a highway to hell.  Whoa, I just totally dated myself. 

A little over a year ago I was speaking with my wonderful Grandmother via email and we were discussing my son in particular.  My son, Alec, at the time was thirteen and he resembled a very tall five year old with an eating disorder.  I was very concerned that he just did not seem to be growing.  Now, I shouldn't have been too concerned since I myself am vertically challenged and my Dad kept telling me, "Oh now Kelly, I didn't hit my growing spurt until I was a freshman in High School, he will grow, just give him some time." (in my best deep voice Dad impression).  Yeah well I was still wearing a size 6X in the 9th grade, so that was not really helping me out.   I decided that having a short child really wasn't all that bad.  I mean I am short and it's never stopped me from doing things, unless you count stacking things on top of each other in incredibly stupid arrangements that could easily cause you to fall and possibly break your neck, I really have not suffered from it.

Anyway, getting back to the Grandmother story.  I was complaining to her via email and low and behold about a week later in the regular "snail mail" comes a letter from my Grandmother, in her beautiful, delicate handwriting which has not changed a bit since I was little.  Now my Grandmother comes from the generation where talking about her personal health and such is just a "private" matter and is not discussed, especially with the Grandchildren. 

Thank Goodness she broke the Grandmother Code of Silence!  She goes on to tell me about ten years ago she was diagnosised with Celiacs Disease.  Well being the seeker of knowledge I am, I immediately head to my computer and type it in.  I am reading the symptoms and BAM! my son is a walking poster child of this disease.  I marched his happy little (literally) butt up to the clinic, demand he have a blood test and inform them I am not leaving until it's done.  A couple of days later our trusty dusty doctor calls me and tells me I am receiving a 20% discount for bringing the diagnosis to them! Ha Ha Ha!  YES! Finally an answer that I love to hear! I WAS RIGHT!!!  So up to the doctor goes me and Stephanie, BLAM! we are positive too!!!!

Well that began our journey of figuring out now what we can and can not eat.  At first I was like, holy shiznit, this sucks, we can't eat anything from a box, UGH!  What is a hamburger helper girl gonna do? 

Little did I know this was going to be the turning point of my culinary skills!  Of course the big challenge was going to be trying to find a balance because three of us needed to eat Gluten Free and two, sometimes three, could eat whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, (jerks, lol.)  

This actually turned out to be a good thing.  I can cook all of the deliciously glutenous confections I want and I CAN'T eat them, which means, that's right, NO WEIGHT GAIN!  It is the best diet I have ever been on!!!!

So.... this blog is about my trials in cooking and baking gluten free and not so gluten free.   I have found the inner chef in myself.  I hope you all enjoy at least one of these delicious recipes!

~Enjoy~

Kelly