Comfort Food for Chilly Days: Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

This was totally my husband's idea, and he deserves the credit not just for thinking of it but for figuring out how to do it.  (And then making it for me! :) )That said, if you've been missing good solid country comfort foods like biscuits and sausage gravy, pine no more!  With a small amount of effort and a supply of Mary Jane's Budget Mix, you too can have gluten-free biscuits with gluten-free sausage gravy on them.

There are two parts to making Biscuits and Gravy.  You have to make the biscuits, and you have to make the gravy.  For the biscuits, we just used the biscuit recipe that came on our box of Budget Mix.  We have found that the biscuits made with this recipe are very good, and make excellent burger buns as well as being excellent all on their own or with gravy.  If you have a different kind of baking mix, check the box or their website for the biscuit recipe - most baking mixes should have one.

Sausage Gravy

Making the Gravy

1 lb loose sausage - we got ours from our local butcher, but it's very easy to make your own loose sausage at home if you don't have a local butcher you trust, or if you want to have maximum control over the ingredients and process to avoid cross-contamination.

3/4 cup Budget Mix
2 cups milk (you can probably do this with a non-dairy substitute like rice milk, but we haven't tried it)

Brown the sausage in a skillet.  Once it's brown, sprinkle the Budget Mix over the top a little at a time and mix in.  If it begins to stick, add a little milk or bacon fat to keep it from doing that.  Whether or not this happens will depend on how fatty your sausage is.  Once all the Budget Mix is incorporated, begin gradually adding the milk, stirring as you go.  Essentially you are making a roux with sausage already in it. Once all the milk has been added and the gravy has thickened to your desired consistency, it's ready to serve.  For biscuits and gravy, we put two biscuits in a bowl and then cover them with a generous helping of gravy.

October Already!

Tom finally has a job again, so we can afford to buy ingredients again.  Practically the first thing I did was order 20 lbs of Mary Jane's GF Budget Mix.  Soon we'll be able to make all the pancakes, pie crusts, and Bakeovers we want!  Hooray!

In the meantime, since Fall is here and the weather is getting cooler, it's a good time to start making stock, and filling up your freezer for easy meals during the chilly months ahead.  If you have a large pot, a leftover chicken or turkey carcass, some vegetables, and an afternoon to hang around the house, you can make wonderful stock that can be used as the base for all sorts of delicious soups.

The stock recipe I use is adapted from the recipe for "Chicken Stock 3" from the Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon (isn't that a wonderful name!).  The book is worth the price of admission for this recipe alone, but the recipe for Chicken Soup with Forest Mushrooms can also be made with leftover Thanksgiving turkey, and is a wonderful, delicious way to use up those leftovers.  This soup is the reason the day after Thanksgiving is anticipated almost as eagerly as the actual Thanksgiving dinner in our house, and it's totally gluten-free.

Anyway, back to the stock.  You may be wondering whether it's worth the trouble to make your own stock, rather than just purchasing ready-made chicken broth at the store.  To me, the answer is an unequivocal YES.  Stock is extremely easy to make, and a great way to use up leftover poultry carcasses.  Additionally, and of particular importance to people with food allergies, when you make it yourself, you know what's in it.  Since commercial soups sometimes list "vegetable broth" or "chicken broth" as an ingredient without actually telling you what's in it, you're left to cross your fingers and hope for the best.  Making soups at home is easy and gives you total control over what you're eating, and the base for many homemade soups is a good stock.  Finally, I have found that having stock on hand in the freezer gives me easy meal options for winter nights where no one really feels like spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

Here is the recipe for poultry stock that I use, followed by the recipe for my hearty chicken soup.  Rather than type the original recipe verbatim out of the book, I am typing it out the way that I make it.  Since it's stock, it's flexible, so feel free to experiment a bit, or leave things out if you don't have them handy or whatever.  If we have a roast chicken or turkey, and I don't have time to make stock right away, I freeze the carcass until I do.  Similarly, when at holiday dinners with my in-laws, I always ask for the carcass if it's not already spoken for.  I do the same for ham bones, but we'll talk about those later. :)  Most people have no problem bagging up a carcass for you to turn into stock if they were otherwise going to throw it in the trash.

Poultry Stock

1 or 2 poultry carcasses:  chicken, duck, turkey, or goose.  For a larger bird like a turkey I'll usually use one carcass, but sometimes for smaller birds like chickens I'll use two if I have an extra in the freezer, since I have a fairly large stock pot.

2 medium onions, unpeeled, quartered
8 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
3 whole cloves garlic, unpeeled (I usually smash the garlic with the side of a large knife)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
9 black peppercorns
3 ribs celery, with leaves, each broken in 2 or 3 big pieces
3 or 4 sprigs fresh parsley (or a couple of big pinches of dried parsley, if fresh is not available)
1 medium leek, white part and several inches of green, split open lengthwise and well washed (optional)
1 medium parsnip, scrubbed and cut in a couple of pieces (optional)
2 medium carrots, scrubbed and cut in large chunks
Large pinch each of dried rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, sage, and savory, or 1 Tablespoon each chopped fresh herbs
Large pinch of celery seeds
Spring water or leftover vegetable cooking water or any mild found or secondary stock to cover carcass and vegetables.  (I usually just use the well water that comes out of our tap, but if you had, say, the water left in the bottom of the pot after steaming some vegetables, you could throw that in as well.)
1 to 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

1.  Place the carcass in your stock pot, cracking the bones here and there with your hands or a large cleaver to help draw out any flavorful marrow.  I usually break the large bones from the legs in half using a cleaver, and break the main body of the carcass up a bit with my hands.

2.  Stud each onion quarter with a clove.  Surround the carcass with clove-studded onions, and add all the other vegetables and seasonings (except the fresh herbs, if using).  Pour over all the cold water and vinegar, at least until everything is covered - using a little extra water doesn't hurt anything at all.  Sometimes I add some water right after I add the carcass, so that it can be starting to warm up while I'm prepping and adding the other ingredients, since it takes a very long time for my stock pot to heat up.

3.  Bring the liquids gradually to a boil over medium to medium-high heat, then immediately turn down the heat and let simmer, uncovered, skimming any surface foam, for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Stir occasionally.  You may replenish the water as it cooks down; otherwise, you will get a lesser amount of concentrated stock which you can dilute later, if you wish.  If you're using fresh rather than dry herbs, add them after about 1 1/2 hours of cooking.

4.  Remove the stock from the heat and strain into another container.  I usually sparge the solids in sections as I go, in order to get as much flavour and goodness as possible out of it.  Basically, this means that I get some of the solids I've strained out in my colander and pour fresh water over them and allow it to run through into the stock, pressing down gently with a wooden spoon to get as much as possible.  Discard the solids.  (note:  the poultry bones and bits of meat are not compostable, but the large pieces of vegetable can be pulled out and added to your compost pile).

5.  Rinse out your stockpot to remove any herbs or detritus stuck to the sides, then pour the stock back in through a mesh sieve to remove any last floaty bits.  Put back on the stove and simmer gently until the volume has been reduced and the stock concentrated to your desired strength, skimming occasionally as needed.  You can reduce it by up to half of its original volume, depending on how much you started out with and how much water you added while sparging.  Or you can skip this step and go immediately to the next step.  This just concentrates the flavor a bit by removing some of the water.

6.  Pour the stock into Mason jars, being sure to leave a good amount of head space.  I specifically use Mason jars because they are designed to withstand both canning and freezing procedures, and are less likely to break in your freezer.  Ball makes screw-on plastic lids for their wide mouth jars that are perfect for freezing.  Don't screw them down all the way until your stock has frozen though - better to set the lids on the jars, put them in the freezer, and then go back once they're frozen and screw the lids down - this way, if you miscalculated the headspace, the frozen stock will be able to push its way out of the top of your jar, rather than breaking it.  Make sure you label all your jars with the contents and the date.  I like to include the amount of stock, or at least use the same measurement for every jar, so that when I need to use it in recipes that call for a specific amount, I know how many jars I need.

That's it!  It looks complicated, but it's really very simple, and most of the time involved is waiting while it simmers away on your stove.  And by the way, as an added bonus, on stock-making day your entire house will smell wonderful!

Now that you've got the stock, here are the instructions for super-easy chicken soup, one of my primary weapons during cold and flu season.  The quantities are variable, depending on how much soup you are making, or how many people you are making it for.

Hearty Chicken Soup 

Frozen poultry stock:  I usually use 2 or 3 quart-sized jars (containing about 3 cups stock each) for a family of four.

Amounts of ingredients given are for the amount of stock noted above - adjust as needed or desired.

1 medium onion, diced
3 Carrots, scrubbed and diced
3 stalks Celery, washed and diced
several cloves garlic, smashed and minced
leftover chicken (or turkey or whatever), diced up into bite-sized pieces
sea salt
cooked brown rice or pasta

Put some oil or fat (I usually use either olive oil or bacon grease) into the bottom of your soup pot and put it on the stove on medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic to brown.  Because I am allergic to raw onions, I like to caramelize them.  How much you want to cook them is up to you.  When the onions are about halfway to where you want them to be, add the carrots and celery, and continue sauteing the vegetables until the onions are browned and the carrots and celery are softened.  I usually sprinkle a large pinch of sea salt (maybe a teaspoon and a half or so) over the vegetables while they are sauteing.  Once the vegetables are cooked to your liking, add the chicken and saute for a few minutes longer, just to warm up the chicken and brown the edges a little.  You may need to add more oil or fat as you go along if it seems like things are starting to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once the vegetables and chicken are warm and cooked to your liking, add the stock and heat over medium heat until hot.  Add more salt and pepper to taste if you want.  You may also want to just let people add it individually when it's served.

You can eat the soup just like this, but it's heartier and more filling if you serve it over cooked rice or cooked gf pasta.  Just scoop some rice or pasta into each bowl, then ladle the soup over it.

Because most of the work of this soup is done when you make the stock, actually making the soup itself is super quick and easy; perfect for when you're coming down with something, or for busy winter days when nobody has the time or energy to cook.  If I am making this soup as a cold/flu fighter, I add a little extra garlic.  My youngest son asks me to make this soup anytime he's feeling under the weather, and swears by its medicinal properties.

Roasted Garlic Hummus

It's been awhile; things have been a bit hectic around here.  My parents were out to visit us last week.  It was really nice to see them, but didn't leave a lot of time for sitting in front of the computer.  Now that things have settled down a bit, I thought it was high time to get that hummus recipe I promised weeks ago up for everyone to enjoy.  The photo is my jar of garbanzo beans next to the container of hummus I just made.

Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip made from garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, and tahini.  Tahini is basically sesame seed butter, and like all-natural peanut butter, you will probably need to stir it when you first open the jar.  If you keep it in the fridge after opening, though, you shouldn't need to stir it again. Although many people eat hummus on pita bread, it's also great on crackers, crudité (a fancy French word for veggie sticks like celery, carrots, and sliced cucumbers), or anything else that is good with dips.

I started making hummus from scratch because my older son, Corwyn, absolutely loves it.  Anytime we were at the supermarket, he'd ask me to buy a tub.  Those tubs of ready-made hummus are expensive!  And I thought to myself, "There's got to be a better way...or at least a cheaper one."  I started with the basic hummus recipe from the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking.  Corwyn tried it and said, "This is okay, mom, but could you make roasted garlic hummus next time?"  I tried making roasted garlic hummus by just adding some roasted garlic to the original recipe, but that on top of the several cloves of raw garlic already in it turned out to be way too much garlic.  I couldn't eat it at all - just a couple of spoonfuls left me feeling hideous for the rest of the evening.  Determined not to give up, I began experimenting.  This is my solution, and I think it's pretty tasty.  Many hummus recipes call for canned garbanzo beans, but this one starts with dried beans.  There are several advantages here, the main one of course being that even organic dried garbanzo beans are incredibly inexpensive.  On top of that, when you start with minimally processed ingredients, you get to control exactly what ends up in your finished product.  No additives, no preservatives, no weird stuff leaching from packaging or whatever.  I have a big glass jar with an airtight lid that I take down to my local natural foods co-op and fill up with garbanzo beans.  Not only is this an inexpensive way to buy them and a great way to store them, it looks really pretty on the shelf.

But enough with the introductions...on to the recipe.

Roasted Garlic Hummus

 1. Cook the beans
Rinse 3/4 cup dried garbanzo beans and soak them in a bowl of water overnight.  I use a medium sized mixing bowl and cover the beans with several inches of cold water.  The next day, drain the beans through a strainer, rinse them again briefly, and put them in a pan with a couple of inches of water and a pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, until tender.  I like to turn the heat off entirely at this point and let the beans cool slowly on the stove.  Since we're essentially mashing them up, softer is better, and since you don't want to work with hot beans, this seems like the most efficient way to do things.

2.  Roast the garlic

While the beans are cooking and cooling, roast your garlic.  To do this, take a whole bulb of garlic and cut the top off so that the ends of the cloves are just exposed.  This will make getting the good stuff out of the papery skins much easier later on.  Put a small amount of olive oil (I never measure it - you just want enough to cover the bottom, maybe a teaspoon or so) in the bottom of a ramekin, roll the bulb of garlic around in the oil until it's completely coated, then set it with the cut side up and bake in a 350 F oven until the top is slightly browned and the cloves are soft and squishy.  I have found this takes about 45 minutes, but your mileage may vary; start checking at 30 minutes, and check every 15 minutes thereafter until it looks right.  Remove from oven and let cool.

I took a picture of the bulb of garlic I roasted this evening because one of the cloves popped out of the skin, which I've never seen happen before.  However, it also gives you a good idea of what the top of the bulb looks like when the garlic is done roasting.


3.  Assemble the hummus

Drain the beans, reserving the liquid.  The easiest way to do this is to put your strainer over a large bowl or liquid measure and then carefully pour the beans into it.  Set the liquid aside.

Put the beans into the bowl of your food processor or blender, along with:

1/3 cup lemon juice
3 Tablespoons tahini

Squeeze or scrape the soft roasted garlic cloves into the food processor as well, discarding the empty skins.  (This is usually messier than I'm making it sound, but that could just be me looking for an excuse to lick roasted garlic off my fingers.  Roasted garlic is yummy all by itself, and some people serve it that way on crackers or small pieces of bread.)  You can add a little sea salt at this point as well, but you may want to wait until you've processed everything together to ensure you get the salt just how you like it.  Put the lid on and puree until smooth, stopping and scraping around the edges of the bowl a couple of times to make sure everything gets in there and you don't end up with chunks of chickpea in your finished product.  You'll probably need to add a couple of Tablespoons of the bean cooking liquid to get the consistency just right; I usually end up using 3 Tbs.  Once the hummus is smooth, add salt to taste and puree until blended.

Scrape the hummus out of your food processor or blender into a glass storage container with a lid.  You could also use a bowl and cover it with foil or plastic wrap, but storage containers are easy to manage and not as likely to make a mess in your fridge accidentally.

Serve with veggies, crackers, or whatever you like to dip.

The Joy of Cooking recommends garnishing hummus with a little olive oil and paprika before serving, but I have never done this (it usually doesn't last long enough for fancy touches) and it's just fine without.  You are welcome to try it that way though.

If roasted garlic isn't your thing, you can experiment with other ingredients too - take a look at the wide variety of flavours hummus comes in at the supermarket for inspiration.

Once you are done making the hummus, you can go ahead and discard the rest of the bean cooking water.  Since it's full of nutrients, I like to water my plants with it.  As we get into fall and winter, and I start making more soups and stews, I may also experiment with adding it to those - anything that brings a little extra flavour and nutrition to the party is a Good Thing, in my opinion.

Some Good Resources for Gluten-Free Living

Fortunately, with the current popularity of the gluten-free diet, there are a lot more resources than there used to be.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Living Without magazine publishes an excellent print edition that is available in many natural foods co-ops and shops, as well as in some bookstores and supermarkets dealing with living and eating well with various kinds of food allergies, not just celiacs/gluten intolerance.  The cover art alone gets my inner foodie all excited.  Along with loads of yummy-looking recipes, their magazine usually features a travel section that talks about where to find delicious food in whatever destination they are featuring that month.  In addition, they have a really informative website, and you can even sign up for their free "Gluten-Free Recipe of the Week" email list.

There are a multitude of gluten-free cookbooks available now, but not every cookbook you use has to be specifically gluten-free.  There are plenty of dishes that are just naturally gluten-free, and many others which can be made gluten-free with a little simple substitution.  Pasta dishes, for example, can be made with rice pasta instead of durum semolina pasta for a delicious gluten-free substitute that sacrifices nothing.  With that in mind, if you don't already have a basic, all-around cookbook that is your go-to for whatever pops into your head to try making, it's very much worth getting one.  My all-time favorite (and the one I give to newlyweds, college students, and pretty much anybody who finds themselves in charge of a kitchen for the first time) is the Joy of Cooking.  It's a classic, and a great resource for learning to make all the basic things that people used to just know how to make, especially if you are just starting out as a cook as well as a gluten-free person.  My dad gave me my first copy when I went away to college, and various editions have been my trusted source for basic cooking questions ever since.

If you want to have bread that is worth eating, skip the store-bought stuff and learn to make it yourself.  Fortunately, it turns out that making gluten-free bread is not only totally different than making regular wheat bread, it's totally easier!  My bible for gluten-free bread is The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman.  Invest in a copy, and then take the time to read the first couple of chapters, where she talks about the different kinds of gluten-free flours, how she combined them to come up with her bread recipes, including some of the food science behind why it works that way, and how gluten-free baking is different from regular baking (for one thing, No Kneading!)  The bread I have been making on an almost daily basis for the family is the basic "Bette's Four Flour Bread".  Hot dog buns my husband made using one of her recipes came out fairly good as well, although we'll have to tweak the recipe a bit to get it just right.  Watch for a future post on making bread, with pictures of what the dough looks like at various stages.

Most of my cookie recipes, including the sugar cookies that won the award at the Allentown fair and the really awesome snickerdoodles, came from The Gluten-Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg.

Bob's Red Mill not only sells a wide variety of gluten-free flours, mixes, and other products, they also have a recipe finder on their site that allows you to search specifically for gluten-free recipes, so you don't have to wade through pages of baked goods you can't eat to find the recipe you're looking for.

Last but not least, Mary Jane Butters of Mary Jane's Farm has created a gluten-free version of her Budget Mix baking mix that comes with a recipe booklet full of recipes for things you might want to make with baking mix, including pie crusts, biscuits, scones, and her famous Bakeovers, which are just about the closest thing to a miracle meal that a busy, overworked mom is likely to find anywhere.  Budget Mix is my favorite of the gluten-free baking mixes I have tried; we buy it in the 10 lb size because we go through it so quickly.  Her site also hosts a chat forum where Farmgirls from all over the world come together to talk about anything and everything, and which has an entire section on food and cooking.  In general, Farmgirls are friendly and helpful, and the chat forum is a great place to ask questions and get answers.  Also, even though her magazine is not specifically gluten-free, and many of the recipes she publishes are not gluten-free, she frequently gives substitutions for making them with gluten-free ingredients.  One issue had a whole section on how to make classic sweet treats like cream-filled sponge cakes (think "Twinkies" only homemade and delicious), cupcakes, chocolate sandwich cookies ("Oreos"), moon pies, and more - in gluten-free as well as regular versions.  I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out.

Focus On What You Can Have

One of the things that many people I have talked to cite when explaining why they are reluctant to try going gluten-free, even though it may help resolve long-standing health issues, is that they are afraid of giving up their favorite foods, or that if they go gluten-free, they will be doomed to a lifetime of eating boring, unappetizing food that doesn't taste good.  Fortunately, this is not as big of a problem as you might think.

First, gluten-free alternatives exist for many foods, and in some cases are as good as or better than the regular gluten variety.  Shortly after we discovered the boys couldn't have gluten, for instance, I entered a batch of gluten-free sugar cookies I had baked in the Great Allentown Fair in the regular sugar cookie category, and won a ribbon (it was for 3rd place, if I recall correctly).  In other words, my gluten-free sugar cookies, while maybe not the very best ones of all those entered in the fair that year, were good enough to be in the top 5, even though they were competing against cookies made with wheat flour.  Since then I have discovered a snickerdoodle recipe from the same cookbook that tastes just like the ones I remember my mom making when I was a little girl.  There is brown rice pasta on the market now that is very good, and while maybe not identical to pasta made with durum semolina (the wheat variety used to make most pasta), it is certainly close enough that there is no need to give up your favorite pasta dishes.

Second, rather than focusing on what you can't have anymore, I find it helps to focus on what you can have.  When looking for tasty gluten-free meals, I have found it helps to look at cuisine from parts of the world where they eat primarily rice or some other non-gluten-containing grain.  Thai cuisine, for instance, features a lot of rice-based dishes, including noodle dishes made with rice noodles.  Similarly, sushi can be a delicious gluten-free alternative, especially if you bring your own small bottle of tamari when eating at restaurants.  Cuisines and dishes that don't use gluten in the first place are wonderful on a gluten-free diet because you don't have to change anything, so you don't feel like you're giving anything up, or missing out on what the meal is "supposed" to taste like.  People used to ask me how I got my young children to eat ethnic foods like sushi or Thai or Indian cuisines.  I always replied that unusual foods from foreign places look a lot more appetizing when you can't eat the same junk as everybody else.  What would you rather have?  A glum hamburger patty with no bun (which is really like giving up half your meal) or a plate full of Pad Thai?  My not-so-little-anymore boys go for the full plate every time.

Third, a lot of pre-packaged gluten-free food is not only massively expensive, it's really rather hideous.  This does not mean you have to resign yourself to a lifetime of horrible food.  What it does mean is if you want to eat well, you're going to have to become familiar with your kitchen.  It's easier than you think, and making things from scratch instead of buying them already-made not only produces much tastier food, it is much less expensive.  Our family has found that despite a tight grocery budget in the last year, we are eating better than we ever have, simply because we spend the money we do have on ingredients, especially fresh local meats, dairy, and produce, and prepare our own foods from scratch.  With this in mind, I highly recommend equipping your kitchen with two very important, very versatile appliances:  a good, powerful food processor (preferably one with a nice deep shaft so you can puree soups in it, among other things) and a KitchenAid stand mixer.  (I'm sure there are other brands of stand mixers on the market, but KitchenAid is the classic.)

Next post:  A few resources for gluten-free cooking and living

Greetings! Welcome to my HAPPY Food blog!

When we began our journey of living with and cooking for multiply-food-allergic children almost 8 years ago, one of the first things I learned was that the Standard American Diet is far more limited than I had ever imagined.  When we started out, the list of things my children reacted badly to included gluten, corn, dairy, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant), and meat preservatives such as sodium nitrate and nitrite (which are carcinogenic and not good for you under the best of circumstances).  I was stunned to discover that almost all of what Americans, including myself, ate consisted of the first four things on that list.  Remove gluten, corn, dairy, potatoes, and tomatoes, and you're left with....not much.  Since the Standard American Diet (or SAD) was not available to us, I was forced to learn how to cook and bake all over again from scratch, and to look to other cultures for tasty and interesting cuisine that would not make my family sick.  My kids have since grown out of their nightshade allergies, and we discovered several years ago that it was not the dairy itself they were allergic to - it was all the corn that most dairy cows in this country are fed that was triggering their reactions.  When we began purchasing milk from a local dairy whose cows are grass-fed, they were fine.  Gluten and corn, however, are still issues, and recently my husband has realized that gluten is at the root of the mysterious health problems he has been struggling with for years.  As our household moves towards 100% gluten-free, I am finding that on the occasions that I do eat gluten (mostly to use up the few remaining products that still contain it), I feel much worse and less energetic than otherwise.

When we started our allergen-free journey, I got a lot of help and advice from other people moms on the Positive Discipline e-list.  I also learned a lot through simple trial and error.  Since then, friends who knew our kids were gluten-free have asked me for advice on how to go gluten-free, either for themselves or people they knew.  Now members of our extended families are looking into gluten-free as a solution to their mysterious health and digestive problems as well, and turning to me for advice.  It's my turn to pay the debt forward, and starting a blog seemed like the best way to share what I have learned with all of you who are just beginning to explore life without some of the most commonly used ingredients in American cuisine, and to provide a forum for folks to talk about what works and doesn't work, yummy discoveries, and the gluten-free/allergen-free life in general.

Why HAPPY food?

Since the Standard American Diet is SAD, it made sense to me that the opposite of SAD is HAPPY.  Additionally, when you stop eating food that is making you sick, even if everyone else is eating it, you will find that you feel much happier - and when you are feeling happy and healthy instead of sick and cranky, the people who love you will be happier as well.

Going gluten-free doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to a life of eating tasteless, unappetizing, boring food.  Join me as we explore the wide world of gluten-free, family-friendly cuisine, eat well, and be HAPPY!