RE: Going GF in a mixed household

[Guest guest]

> From: Theresa

> The thing that I'm having difficulty with is how to stay GF when there are

> four other people in the house who will be eating gluten.

> ... But I'll have to keep feeding everyone else gluten

> until they are tested.

It will be incredibly difficult. Better that you cook gf and let them eat

gluten at school and work. Buy them gf bread until they are tested (but get

rid of the flour .. it'll still take you months, if not years, to get all

traces of it out of your kitchen). If you cook them gluten foods, you have

to never taste test it, use different utensils for yours, different

colanders (and pots and water) when cooking your pasta, worry about crumbs

and constantly be cleaning crumbs, washing hands, cleaning frig and

microwave handles, etc. Also, maintain separate condiments (esp. butter and

peanut butter, where crumbs breed).

Read the threads on decontaminating your kitchen and cross contamination

issues at Delphi forums for a good starting place:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/list.asp?webtag=celiac & ctx=2048 & cacheTag

=x4-29. They also have very good product lists of mainstream gf products,

for those that are not eating only whole foods.

Don't forget to go thru your soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, etc (anything you

might inadvertently get into your mouth, either while bathing or thru

touching during the day or cleaning it off at night).

> How does everyone else do it? Should I quit gluten cold turkey?

If you are going gf, cold turkey is required - otherwise, you just

contaminate your new, clean pans, toaster, etc. Not to mention that

low-gluten won't relieve symptoms of celiac. On the other hand, expect to

make mistakes, especially the first few months (and if you don't go over

your current pantry contents closely).

> Also, I will get a new toaster, separate butter dish and new GF utensils

> etc. But there are some areas I haven't seen mentioned which concern me

> about contamination: what about the can opener, wire whisk, pastry

blender,

> regular blender, scouring pads, dish cloths (dry and wet), sink strainer,

> the pits in my stainless steel pots, and any metal utensil that has a

joint

> like a pancake flipper or soup ladle. These all seem like places that

could

> harbour gluten and be as hard to clean properly as a teflon pan, bread

> machine or plastic utensils.

These can all be a problem. Get out a clean dish cloth when doing gf dishes

and do gluten dishes last, the toss it into the laundry. Buy extras or wash

often. You may find many of the items simply can't be cleaned (or were

rusted anyway). Scouring pads you'll need to keep separate between gf and

non-gf dishes/pots/pajs.

> Speaking of plastic, I get kind of freaked out when I empty the dishwasher

> and find bits of dried mac & cheese stuck to the side of a bowl, or

linguine

> stuck to the metal serving tongs. Just because I can't see it, how do I

know

> that all the other dishes that went through that load are GF?

I would hand wash your gf items until the whole house goes gf (which you can

and probably should do, no matter their test results - the results mainly

will determine what they eat outside the house). Of course, you could use

this as an excuse to buy a new dishwasher!!

You will want a KitchenAid mixer to make your own bread and other gf items.

Most are happy with the 300-325 watt units (4.5 to 5 qt bowl). Lesser brands

(despite more watts) tend to have a hard time with gf " doughs " (which are

really very thick, sticky batters).

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[Guest guest]

Theresa,

If you're celiac and going gluten free, quitting has to be cold turkey

- no other way will allow your body to heal.

I would suggest for the sake of your sanity, you keep things really

simple at first: when you're cooking for the whole family, try

naturally GF foods like potatoes and rice, meat/fish without sauce and

steamed or boiled veggies. A few weeks of slightly boring food and

store bought baking won't hurt anybody! I know it's hard for a Mom to

think this way, but putting your health first will benefit everyone in

long run - you set an example for kids on taking care of your body,

and you'll be healthier to cope with life.

Yes, to safely bake GF, you'll enventually need to decontaminate the

kitchen. But until your kids go GF, I wouldn't take on the project.

I'm glad you gave your location: Vancouver is a really friendly city

to celiacs! (you may not think so now, but travel a little and you''l

see what I mean!) There is at least one completely GF bakery in town

(http://www.pannerizo.com/) and the health food grocery chain carries

a lot of frozen GF baked goods. At Granville Island there's a booth

that sells GF cheese rolls - they're Brazilian style - very chewy, but

good. So you have easy access to GF bread, pastas, cereals, pastries,

etc. - you just need dibs on the freezer space!

Until the whole family is ready to eat GF at home (my DH does even tho

he doesn't need to - but that's how we can keep the 2 who need to be

GF safe) keep your food separate, get a new toaster, colander and

cutting board.

As for the dishwasher: I scrape the plates and quickly rinse

everything by hand before it goes in (done it for years) - that

eliminates all visible food residue on the clean dishes.

As for the butter dish, jam, etc. - have you read Danna Korn's books

yet? One of them describes the " drop method " of scooping things from

common jars. The only gluten in our house these days is DH's Sandwich

bread - he drop/scoops for his PB & J's so there are no crumbs in the

jars. Even my 5 yr old has learned how to drop/scoop. We do a variant

on it for the butter: we have a butter knife on the butter dish, you

use it to slice off some butter, and drop it onto your plate. You use

your place knife to spread the butter.

Some folks choose to be more cautious about gluten, some less so. In

time, and it will take time, you'll discover what level of caution is

safe for your family. Best wishes to you!

Maureen

p.s. the macadamia nut brownies at Panne Rizo are really good!

> Hi everyone:

>

>How does everyone else do it? Should I quit gluten cold turkey? If

so, should I wait until decontaminating my kitchen to start (huge job

with 3 kids underfoot)?

>(much snipping)

>

>

> Theresa (in Vancouver, Canada)