A Thought

I know I don't have many readers here, but I had an unusual (for me) Saturday afternoon yesterday. I went to a potluck BBQ at an acquaintance's house. 

I've known her about 5 years, but rarely saw her except for a once a year "retreat" of sorts. Anyway, when I broke my right humerus in two places last July, she was kind enough to offer her services to cut out the mats in my hair and help me feel pretty. She's a licensed hairdresser, and since she was willing to come to me, who was I to complain? She did a great job, and since then has come over about every 3 months when I asked her to help out with the hair. For the first six months, I was unable to wash or brush my hair, so either Stitch or Shilo got stuck with that along with other personal bodily tasks that I won't mention.

So, anyway, this BBQ is a once a year big affair that she and her husband  host.  He smokes meats, and people bring all sorts of yummy things to complement the meat. I decided to do something gluten free that Shilo and others might enjoy. People often say that "Gluten Free" is another word for tasteless and often disgusting baked goods that have a funny texture on the mouth. Often, recipes call for Xanthan gum as a binder because it's gluten free. I've always been determined to fix gluten free food with pronounceable and easy to find things that aren't overpriced.

I'm fond of experimentation as well, and because of that, I'll often buy gluten free snacks and dessert items at places such as Big Lots or even the 99 cents only store, along with Dollar Tree. One of my more recent finds was a box of "gourmet" chocolate chip cookies. I read the package,and was pleasantly surprised to discover that all the ingredients were recognizable, and most of them I had at home. I bought it for Shilo, and when I asked him,he said they were "delicious." I insisted on trying, and sure enough, they were a delight on the tongue and tastebuds. I noticed they were made exclusively with rice flour.  I decided that I'd go searching for rice flour on my next outing. I bought it at the 99 cents only store and put it in my pantry and forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I got the invitation.

Over the past week, I've looked through the internet trying to find a cookie recipe that would suit Shilo's need for gluten free and my desire for easy to pronounce ingredients that wouldn't break the bank. It had to be similar enough to my personal cookie recipe that I've used since I was in my teens as far as taste was concerned, and, of course, use the brown rice flour. I was met with many disappointments, but I found two recipes that almost fit my needs, but areas were lacking in both of them.  Fortunately, the areas could easily be fixed by taking the best of each, and that's what I did.

I made a HUGE bowl of cookies, and baked up half the batch for the BBQ. The rest got bagged and refrigerated to bake later this week. The cookies were about a '9' rated by Shilo, and I hate to admit it, but I gave them a '10.' There was one younger male who has gluten intolerance and was so excited to see cookies that he hugged me. Later, his girlfriend asked for my secret. I emailed my recipe to her. I told her she might want to halve it, because I like to make HUGE amounts of cookies.

I guess it was that success that got me thinking about all my other recipes that I've modified to make gluten free. I don't have many, but what if I created a blog/forum similar to Dan's where men and women could discuss and share their gluten free cooking disasters as well as successes, and recipes could be exchanged? Something for people like me who love to cook and eat but aren't professional chefs or nutritionists but just like good tasting foods.

I'd much rather talk to a real person about the trial and error approach where the (poor) family dog gets the mistakes, or sometimes it's too horrible even for the dog. I'd also like to share the recipes that I have perfected and maybe provide encouragement for people taking those first painful steps in trying out gluten free food and coming short. 

So, all the above is just saying that I have an idea for a blog, and I'm asking for encouragement.
Please?