Hello, and welcome to my blog, The Deglutenizer! My name is Jamie, I’m 26 years old, and I’ve been cooking since I was 11 or 12. I was tested for Celiac when I developed my first bout of gastritis at 15, and did not show the damage associated with the disease. But after a history of inflammation in my digestive tract when stressed, I went gluten-free in November of 2012. Since then, I’ve had far fewer symptoms, and I’ll continue to follow a gluten-free lifestyle to maintain my personal health.
Cooking has been part of my life since I was young, and I love the connections it can build. Bonds are created when you break bread together, but even more so when you cook together. Cooking is an experience to be shared, whether with family, friends, or as a perfect date night activity (you know, when you actually have date nights…some of us could be a little less single…). And that’s why I’m writing this blog. I want to share my cooking experiences and recipes with anyone willing to read it, because food is all about sharing. And if I can find a way to make gluten-free recipes palatable (since so many really aren’t), then I feel it’s my civic duty to share that information with the public.
As a millennial, I’ve noticed that many of my peers lack in culinary appreciation. Most of my friends grew up in homes where dinners were pulled out of boxes and vacuum-packed plastic wrappers, if it wasn’t pulled out of a paper bag from a drive-thru window. Powdered orange “cheese” and packets of Taco Bell Fire sauce are favorite flavors of my generation, and even the generations before. I’ve personally taken responsibility for what I eat by cooking most of my own meals, and I hope I can empower my readers to make similar decisions and take the time to learn to cook for themselves rather than out of a box.
I grew up learning how to cook from my grandma, mom, and uncle, not to mention the hundreds of hours I’ve watched on Food Network (maybe thousands, it’s one of my favorite channels). In the past few years, Alton Brown and his show Good Eats have been a huge influence on my cooking style. Still, even AB is not infallible (wait, keep reading and see my points before you get all offended that I’ve insulted your idol!). Earlier episodes of his show focused on simple ingredients that are readily available to home cooks and utilizing simple techniques that don’t require a ton of fancy kitchen gadgets. Then he got a shiny new set and a real production budget and he started commentating on Iron Chef. He still focused a lot on the science of how cooking works, but the ingredients lists got longer and more obscure, he started recommending going to Asian markets and fish marts and produce stands, and the new tools he began utilizing would hardly be considered standard gear for the regular American home cook. Not to mention he lives in Atlanta, a major metropolitan area, and most of us don’t live anywhere near a population that huge, meaning those things aren’t right there for most of us. All-in-all, he got a little pretentious at the end (I’m sorry, Alton, I still love you!).
So that’s what I’m going to try finding a balance of. Sound food science, basic techniques, tools you can find in any Walmart (if it isn’t already in your kitchen), and simple ingredients. Yes, most recipes will contain at least four flours and/or starches, but that’s just part of being gluten-free, and you will probably already have all of them on-hand. I also hate those other blogs that tell you to pre-blend your own bread mix or cookie mix or whatever… I will only ever give you a straight recipe, because different things require different ratios, and trying to pre-blend stuff and make multiple things from it is just dumb. You can either make the best bread and okay brownies, or okay bread and the best brownies when using a pre-blended mix…or you can make each batch when you want to and have the best recipes for both bread AND brownies. And then you don’t need to worry about storing your blends and the extra flours that didn’t go into your blend, and you won’t need to restock on all your flours for the next time you make a blend, because of course what’s left in the bag isn’t enough for a full second batch. Seriously, don’t pre-blend your flours.
Also, I’m going to try not to be sweary, because Celiac diagnoses are being made younger and younger, so I don’t want some newly diagnosed young thing happening upon my blog and seeing the way I normally speak (I sometimes say stuff that would make a sailor blush…actually, I have said stuff that has made a sailor blush.). I’m going to ask that my readers also keep it PG in their comments here on the blog and on social media. If you feel the need to cuss me out because your cookies didn’t turn out like my picture/video said they would, or wish to make alternate suggestions about how a kitchen counter should be used, or want to describe the exact ways in which your new favorite recipe makes you feel all tingly, then please fill out the form on the contact page and do so directly in my inbox.
So that’s me, and that’s my blog, and I hope I can teach you some things about gluten-free recipes, basic cooking techniques, and food appreciation. Check out my archive to see older posts, and follow me on social media for all my latest updates!
Watch my videos and subscribe to my channel!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtCYhgkitlWR5kcPXOau0sg
Follow me on Instagram!
https://instagram.com/thedeglutenizer/
Like me on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/TheDeglutenizer
Follow me on Twitter!
http://twitter.com/TheDeglutenizer
Follow me on tumblr!
http://thedeglutenizer.tumblr.com
Follow me on Pinterest!
http://www.pinterest.com/thedeglutenizer/
Cooking has been part of my life since I was young, and I love the connections it can build. Bonds are created when you break bread together, but even more so when you cook together. Cooking is an experience to be shared, whether with family, friends, or as a perfect date night activity (you know, when you actually have date nights…some of us could be a little less single…). And that’s why I’m writing this blog. I want to share my cooking experiences and recipes with anyone willing to read it, because food is all about sharing. And if I can find a way to make gluten-free recipes palatable (since so many really aren’t), then I feel it’s my civic duty to share that information with the public.
As a millennial, I’ve noticed that many of my peers lack in culinary appreciation. Most of my friends grew up in homes where dinners were pulled out of boxes and vacuum-packed plastic wrappers, if it wasn’t pulled out of a paper bag from a drive-thru window. Powdered orange “cheese” and packets of Taco Bell Fire sauce are favorite flavors of my generation, and even the generations before. I’ve personally taken responsibility for what I eat by cooking most of my own meals, and I hope I can empower my readers to make similar decisions and take the time to learn to cook for themselves rather than out of a box.
I grew up learning how to cook from my grandma, mom, and uncle, not to mention the hundreds of hours I’ve watched on Food Network (maybe thousands, it’s one of my favorite channels). In the past few years, Alton Brown and his show Good Eats have been a huge influence on my cooking style. Still, even AB is not infallible (wait, keep reading and see my points before you get all offended that I’ve insulted your idol!). Earlier episodes of his show focused on simple ingredients that are readily available to home cooks and utilizing simple techniques that don’t require a ton of fancy kitchen gadgets. Then he got a shiny new set and a real production budget and he started commentating on Iron Chef. He still focused a lot on the science of how cooking works, but the ingredients lists got longer and more obscure, he started recommending going to Asian markets and fish marts and produce stands, and the new tools he began utilizing would hardly be considered standard gear for the regular American home cook. Not to mention he lives in Atlanta, a major metropolitan area, and most of us don’t live anywhere near a population that huge, meaning those things aren’t right there for most of us. All-in-all, he got a little pretentious at the end (I’m sorry, Alton, I still love you!).
So that’s what I’m going to try finding a balance of. Sound food science, basic techniques, tools you can find in any Walmart (if it isn’t already in your kitchen), and simple ingredients. Yes, most recipes will contain at least four flours and/or starches, but that’s just part of being gluten-free, and you will probably already have all of them on-hand. I also hate those other blogs that tell you to pre-blend your own bread mix or cookie mix or whatever… I will only ever give you a straight recipe, because different things require different ratios, and trying to pre-blend stuff and make multiple things from it is just dumb. You can either make the best bread and okay brownies, or okay bread and the best brownies when using a pre-blended mix…or you can make each batch when you want to and have the best recipes for both bread AND brownies. And then you don’t need to worry about storing your blends and the extra flours that didn’t go into your blend, and you won’t need to restock on all your flours for the next time you make a blend, because of course what’s left in the bag isn’t enough for a full second batch. Seriously, don’t pre-blend your flours.
Also, I’m going to try not to be sweary, because Celiac diagnoses are being made younger and younger, so I don’t want some newly diagnosed young thing happening upon my blog and seeing the way I normally speak (I sometimes say stuff that would make a sailor blush…actually, I have said stuff that has made a sailor blush.). I’m going to ask that my readers also keep it PG in their comments here on the blog and on social media. If you feel the need to cuss me out because your cookies didn’t turn out like my picture/video said they would, or wish to make alternate suggestions about how a kitchen counter should be used, or want to describe the exact ways in which your new favorite recipe makes you feel all tingly, then please fill out the form on the contact page and do so directly in my inbox.
So that’s me, and that’s my blog, and I hope I can teach you some things about gluten-free recipes, basic cooking techniques, and food appreciation. Check out my archive to see older posts, and follow me on social media for all my latest updates!
Watch my videos and subscribe to my channel!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtCYhgkitlWR5kcPXOau0sg
Follow me on Instagram!
https://instagram.com/thedeglutenizer/
Like me on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/TheDeglutenizer
Follow me on Twitter!
http://twitter.com/TheDeglutenizer
Follow me on tumblr!
http://thedeglutenizer.tumblr.com
Follow me on Pinterest!
http://www.pinterest.com/thedeglutenizer/