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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Recipes.

I've been thinking about recipes this morning - well, about food, which led me to recipes.  I think about food a lot.  Especially when I am on a diet or, in this case, trying out my non-gluten trial.  You know how it goes -- there is to be NO bread, wheat, fillers, etc., in your diet for six weeks and ALL you want are any and all of the former.  I thought I would try to come up with some recipes that would perk me up while allowing me to stay the course of this non-gluten trial. 

I trotted over to my kitchen island where I have a thick stack of recipes that have caught my fancy on the Internet.  Alot of them are from reading all of your blogs, and a lot of them are from Alana Kellogg's site.  I am especially drawn to vegetarian fare in the summer with its glut of fresh vegetables (read: zucchini).  I also have a sizable cookbook collection.  And I have two recipe card boxes.  And I have a ring binder of mostly tried and true recipes.  And I have my Great Aunt Edie's ancient, falling-apart recipe book that is nearly a hundred years old.  Hmm.  Maybe, if I cooked my way through my recipe cards,  GAE's old binder, my binder, all my cookbooks, and all my printouts, then blogged about it, someone would make it into a movie!  Ah, but, by then, I'd be long gone.  Besides, who would they cast as me, now that Katherine Hepburn is long gone?

Back to subject.  When I opened my recipe card boxes and pulled out those dog-eared index cards and "From the Kitchen of" cards, it was so completely enjoyable!  I spent a good hour going through them, remembering people now long gone who had passed on their special dishes.  Remembering all the dinner parties and patio parties where I first tasted them.  It made me realize that the Age of Internet has really taken the sweetness out of savoring memories.  Got a dozen giant zucchinis in your fridge?  Google "zucchini recipes" and get a zillion hits in a nanosecond.  Or....leaf through the Vegetables section of your recipe box and find JaneAnn's Million Dollar Zucchini Cake.  I mean, really, which would you like to do?  I'm going through my print-outs to ferret out the recipes that I will actually try.  The rest will become scratch paper.  Then I am going to work my way through GAE's recipe binder - heaven help me, I'll probably have to go into a sterile environment and wear gloves, it's so fragile.  But there has to be SOMETHING in there I can eat!  Maybe Ruth's Divine Luncheon Salad?

8 comments:

Mama Pea said...

Do you have a whole foods co-op near you to check out? Seems to me there are a lot of foods there labeled "gluten-free" nowadays. They are more along the packaged foods line and probably will be a mite on the pricey side, but they could provide you with some special treats to keep you going for this trial period without tearing all your clothes off some evening, running screaming into the kitchen and stuffing a whole loaf of bread in your mouth. (Washed down with a bottle of non-gluten wine, of course.

Susan said...

Mama Pea - You can read me like a book! No, I am in the black hole of retail of any type. This area doesn't have anything as neato as a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. The only packaged food hereabouts are super processed. I'd rather gnaw on a zucchini. I'm tough.

judy said...

I just told my daughter to have her levels checked,she is always in pain we do know she is close to having crown's disease but not quite the same thing so if she must figure it out herself ,this is a safe way to try NO GLUTEN --GOOD LUCK ON YOUR DIET

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

You poor thing, 6 weeks no gluten. I have heard people have less trouble with gluten when they grind the grain themselves, but that is to be found out after your 6 week trial. I was just reading a cook book from WWI and since grains were rationed then, your really old recipes might just have something you can eat. I have tried some gluten free recipes and lets just say I am NOT going to share them with you, I like you too much. And they are way too bad.

Mama Pea said...

We don't have the nationally known Whole Foods or Trader Joe's chain stores within 350 miles of here either. But we are super fortunate to have a well-run member owned co-op that carries only organic (if we can believe what's labeled organic anymore) foods and that's where I've seen some of the gluten-free stuff. No "health food" stores by you?

Erin said...

I have no doubt you will find something in that treasure trove of old recipe cards!

The Apple Pie Gal said...

Susan, I think you are on to something! Not the gluten free thing (good luck with that tho) but the recipe clean out! I do the same thing! And you nailed it on the head that we forget those age old recipes handed down to us. I think I will do this exact thing!

Susan said...

Judy - Crohn's is no fun, I feel for your daughter. As tough as it can be, diet can help.

Jane - I KNOW! Boo hoo. I hope you are right, since there are 25 lbs of hard winter wheat in my freezer with my name on them!

Mama Pea - Nothing very close, but I think there's one in Albany. Good idea - I will look them up.

Erin - I will share some of the more "interesting" ones.

APG - You go, girl! I already have a little pile of to-tries waiting for the weekend. Shall we post what we find?