Recipes are for sissies!

As I search out recipes that are gluten free; I am often struck by the fact that I am changing an entire recipe to accomodate the lack of gluten.  But I am not using common sense when following them.  For some reason,  I was following these recipes like the gospel; and they weren't turning out all that good.  I was not using my own common sense -- or my own natural cooking abilities.  I rarely follow recipes closely -- I consider them merely guidelines.  So it was interesting to me to realize I was following gluten free recipes like the gospel.

For example, I was making this punch.  Now, it was never in danger of having gluten in it, but I had prepared a gluten free red velvet cake beforehand, and this required like 8 different types of flour; and as I stirred it I thought, this is going to be dry.  (And it was.  Dense as all get out, but the flavor was decent.  It was totally edible, but if I ever made it again, I would figure out a way for it to be less dense.  Just more moisture overall.)  So I was making this punch and it asked for agave or honey to be mixed in with the ginger, and I thought, this seems like a lot.  Agave is sweet and I don't really love things to be overly sweet.  But instead of using my common sense, I followed the recipe to the letter.  Of course it was too sweet, so I ended up having to doctor it.  I could have saved myself a lot of trouble had I just followed my gut.

So Maddie asked for chicken pot pie over the holiday, and so I instantly went to the 9.8 million blogs that are devoted to gluten free recipes in search of the perfect chicken pot pie one.  Now, the thing is, I have perfected that recipe.  I have taken several and combined them to make what I think is the most scrumptious one of all.  My family concurs.  So why am I searching for a new one?  Let's apply a little common sense here:  The gluten culprit is in the crust.  So, either make a pie crust that is gluten free, or eliminate it altogether.  But why change the core of the recipe?  It's just weird ... like I've entered some new zone where all my old recipes don't apply.  But that is ridiculous.


We went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch today and after my salad we decided to order one piece of cheesecake to share.  We decided on the carrot cake cheesecake, and once it arrived, I was like, oh, I can't eat that!  Not sure why it never occurred to me that carrot cake would have flour in it -- I guess I was more caught up in the fact that cheesecake would be safe.  (I know the crust wouldn't be, but that is easy to avoid.)  Oh well.  No cheesecake for me.  Which is fine.  I'd rather have chocolate over cheesecake any day!

So I am going to stop believing that everyone else knows better than I do how to prepare gluten free food.  I just find it so interesting that for a brief stint there, I truly believed I didn't have the power!