Gluten-Free Pan Fried Catfish

Golden pan fried catfish fillet with crisp baby greens and brown rice.

One of the juicy, inspiring gifts of an empty nest is the big sky freedom to pull up roots and wander. And Darling, have we been wandering. We are gypsies. Moving six times since selling our family home back on Cape Cod five years ago, each time moving south, migrating west. Each time selling off more books, discarding the outworn. Until we reached the sea again.

After years of oceanic dreaming I finally call the beach my home.

I wake to the rhythmic crash of the waves. I open windows and fill the rooms with sea glass sunlight and salt air. My pillows and bedding smell like surf.

I can breathe here. I can paint here. I can cup my hands and carve the space to imagine new things.

Quinoa Taco Salad

Quinoa taco salad- light, fresh, fabulous.

Looking for a fresh idea for a summer picnic or backyard get-together? This cool and breezy quinoa taco salad might be just what you're craving. Laced with lime juice and sea salt, the combo of fluffy quinoa and ripe avocado, spiked with red onion and sunny sweet pepper, served on a crisp bed of romaine lettuce, is a light and healthy twist on the salsa drenched bean and cheese heavy taco salads so ubiquitous years ago. It's a total win for gluten-free vegans and vegetarians. And let's face it.

Quinoa is much more hip than canned re-fried beans.

The inspiration for a quinoa taco salad was sparked over on the Gluten-Free Goddess Facebook page. Reader (and long distance friend) Patsy commented on a thread about Memorial Day picnic salads, mentioning her current fave, quinoa taco salad. We all perked up. 

Quinoa? As a taco salad? Brilliant. 

If you could eat gluten, would you? The option is one step closer.

Dining out is a minefield if you have to be gluten-free. 
Would a vaccine make life easier?

There may be a celiac vaccine in our future.

That's the word from Down Under this month. An Australian biotechnology company called ImmusanT, Inc. is developing an immunotherapeutic vaccine for celiac disease. And guess what? The Phase 1 clinical trial went swimmingly.  Read about their positive results here at the NFCA's Celiac Central.

It's a very odd feeling to imagine eating gluten again, after almost ten years of banishment. A decade of shunning gluten is no small feat. In a food culture that worships wheat, and elevates the gentle science of baking to both a high art (think crusty, fresh baked baguette) and a low art (say, pizza pockets), living gluten-free is akin to attempting to mambo in a minefield. Gluten lurks everywhere. Not only where you’d anticipate it (pizza, bagels, beer) but in sly, coy disguises, hiding in plain sight (soy sauce, broth, herbal tea). And even the most modest of amounts (a few stray crouton crumbs, perhaps) can trigger one’s hyper-vigilant immune system and ignite a fiery swath of digestive destruction, albeit mostly invisible to the naked eye (unless, like me, you are doubly blessed with symptoms and sport the eruptive skin rash known as dermatitis herpetiformis on your butt).

Feelings akin to those sticky, fluttery uncertainties (if not subtle panic) one feels dodging the unbidden proposal of matrimony (or tip-toeing backwards on a Sunday morning walk of shame) begin to trickle in.

Is this something I really want?

And would I, if I could?

Whole Grain Gluten-Free Bread

Whole grain gluten-free deliciousness.

Just when you think you have it all figured out, life snakes you a curve ball and rattles your position. Just a little a bit. Just enough to make sure you're still awake, still paying attention. Because what is life about if not change? Change is the only constant. Change is our true companion.

Nothing stays the same.

Especially persnickety celiac tummies. I know this from readers. I know this from gluten-free bloggers. I know this from personal experience. We start at A, oblivious. We skip and stumble to D. We settle in. We think G or J is pretty cool. Then Q throws us into a tizzy.

We discover gluten is an enemy. Then maybe milk. Or mustard. Or kidney beans. You name it. Fill in the blank. Most of us with celiac disease end up with a few additional culprits on our Need to Avoid List. Maybe not right away. But over time, many of us will have to fine tune our repertoire of ingredients.

If we want to stay healthy.

If we want to grow stronger, not fatter.

If we want to feel trim, not bloated.

Which brings me to bread. (What celiac conversation doesn't lead to bread, I ask you?)

Sugar Blues? Gluten-free Baking Without Sugar

Baking gluten-free without sugar: substitutions and tips.

An increasing number of comments and questions have revolved around sugar as a sweetener and how to substitute it in gluten-free baking. I thought the subject sweet enough to deserve its own post.

And since I recently started a sugar detox (I'm on day six sugar-free-, Darlings-- completely- no sweetener except a pinch of the herb stevia in my tea and smoothies), I thought it might be appropriate to refresh this post and bring it forward.

More to come on my sugar detox- soon.

Browse Gluten-Free Recipes Visually

Browse Gluten-Free Goddess recipes visually.

Today's post will be short and sweet. A gentle nudge to try the new Snapshot browsing view for Gluten-Free Goddess, linked in the left sidebar. Have you tried it yet? I love it. Here's the low down.