…my home is warm,
and everything is gluten-free!
I know I have mentioned here before that I am now gluten-free. It has been for a whole year. That is so hard to believe. It has been a miracle cure for some of the health issues that I was dealing with. I also know that I mentioned that I do not want to turn this blog into a gluten-free one when there are others that do so well at it. I am a novice for sure. It is a very real part of my life, so I do want to mention it from time to time. I like to have a treat every now and then, but most gluten-free recipes call for 5 different kind of flours and sometimes as many as 25 ingredients to make a dozen cookies!! First of all, I don’t have the time for that. Second of all, I live in Japan and can’t get those ingredients if I wanted to. One advantage I do have living here is that rice flour is plentiful and cheap! I have also discovered the wonders of xanthum gum and it is easy for my mother to ship to me from time to time.
My basic gluten-free flour of choice is 2 parts white rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch and 1/3 part corn starch. These are all easy ingredients for me to get here and I have had good success with each recipe that I have tried using this. There may be a first time for a flop, but it hasn’t happened yet.
On my tea tray you will see Flourless Oatmeal Cookies, Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies and Lemon Cream Scones. The recipe for the scones was adapted from a recipe at food.com. I used my rice flour mix in place of regular flour and added 1 tsp. of xanthum gum. I also substituted dried cranberries for the raisins. They turned out wonderful. My guest was so surprised that they were made with rice flour.
On another note, I made what we call Snowball Cookies the other night. My husband ate one and commented on how good they were. Then he asked, “These aren’t gluten-free, are they?” I just smiled. Maybe the days of cooking two meals, one for them and one for me, are over and I can just cook for us! =)
Drinking at the Springs 
I was just recently visiting with a friend whose grown son has to now be gluten free.
She’s been experimenting with various recipes and was telling me some are good enough that everyone likes them and others… blech. 😉
Thanks for linking up to our blog hop!
I miss you, and your china is beautiful
Glad you found some things that work for you! It seems like more and more people are having trouble with gluten nowadays.
So glad for you, Kim! My sister recently sent me a GF Cookie recipe (can add nuts or dried fruit or combo for variation.) It calls for brown rice flour; can you get that there? Let me know if interested. Since her husband is a celiac, she’s done a lot of improvising! 🙂
Hi Kim. Thanks for the blog. Becka and I have been gf for over a year but I don’t do much baking, so I am glad to see the recipes for thinks you have baked. Have you found a good pizza recipe? The ones I have tried have not tasted a lot like real pizza.