Some of my gluten free books
Happy April Fools Day! It’s always been one of my favorite days of the year. I’ve always had a great joke ready to play on my family. For years I would torment them until they started to mark the date on their calendars. Now they were ready for me. My favorite joke so far was one I played on my husband. He’s a creature of habit just like the rest of us so I knew generally where he would park his car at his office. So I drove 1 hour from our home to his office and moved his car a couple of floors above in the parking garage where he parked. When he was ready to leave he could not find his car and thought it was stolen. When he went down to the attendant to report it, they handed him a note wishing him a Happy April Fool’s Day and letting him know where his car was parked. It’s been hard to top that, but one year I will and he knows it. 🙂
I thought about what joke could I write today to get everyone all riled up only to figure out it was a joke. But I spend so much time teaching and trying to get out good and accurate information about living gluten and dairy free that I thought it would be counterproductive. So today I will spare my readers one of my blood boiling April Fool’s jokes.
But before we go any further I just want to make sure you go back to Tuesday’s post, Great Gluten Free Pasta Challenge and let me know if you’re in. I’ve had people email me that they are going to give it a try. Go back and add your name to the comments section if you’re going to play with pasta with us. Check out the video on how to make gluten free pasta and the recipe that was added in last night.
more gluten free books
Back to today. Instead of a joke I thought I would pick up where Amy left off on her post this week on Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays. She talked about Taking Baby Steps and Moving Forward and she shared some great resources. That got me thinking I would love to see one long list of really good gluten free books.
So I’m asking you. What are your favorite gluten free books? Are they cookbooks, information books, e-books, and food reference books that you use? Were there books that got you started? How about books you had to go back and read once you gained some perspective? What are your ‘go to” books for recipes? Share with us your favorites and what you like about them.
Tell everyone you know we’re creating The GF Book List. Have them come and share their picks. Please try to give the author’s name along with the title of the book. Feel free to share the title of your favorite recipe or chapter from the book. The whole point is to share.
My go to non-gluten focused books
Hello! Love all your stack of gluten free books! I love Bette Hagman’s books, my issue of The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy is held together by a rubber band! I think it was the recipe for Pizza Crust that really made me feel…let’s see, what is the word..moved? You see, it said to measure 7/8 of a cup of water…and somehow, the thought of how many attempts at making that recipe that she could say exactly 7/8 of a cup…well, I don’t know about anyone else, but BETTE Hagman is one of my heroes. (I know she passed away, but she is still a hero.) Also, I love getting great recipes now from all these wonderful gluten free blogs! THANKS! Kay P. S. Loved your tip about getting out coconut milk… I really had no idea. So glad to know so I could make Perfect Poundcake from gluten free easily.
Kay- Betty Hagman's books got me and tons of gluten free folks started on the path to cooking and living gluten free. She was one of a kind. So glad to see you are enjoying cooking and learning from everyone out there.
I don't use many gluten-free cookbooks. I'm not sure why…I think it's my experimental nature. I like to play in the kitchen and figure out what works. I have a hundred or more non-gluten free cookbooks, though, that I study on a regular basis.
Until this past year, I had not found any gluten-free cookbooks that I thought were worth much. But this last year has been a bonanza with cookbooks like Stephanie’s Make It Fast, Cook It Slow (all gfe-style recipes), Kelly’s The Spunky Coconut (inventive recipes for gf/df/sf), Ali and Tom’s The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook (out before this year, but it was new to me; such an excellent resource book, too), and the one I’ll be reviewing today, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking, by Pete and Kelli Bronski (No Gluten, No Problem). I know I’m leaving something out, but these are all great.
However, I do agree with Amy, too. Most of the time I just use regular cookbooks and focus on recipes that are naturally gluten free or easily made gluten free–again, the gfe approach. And, sometimes, I just wing it … with recipes for ice cream especially. 🙂
Shirley
Shirley- I guess by looking at my stack of cookbooks you would think I cook from them all the time. Well Ali's and Elana's I do use most as I'm learning to bake. You are so right about Ali's book being full of great information. But I am a cookbook collector. What I didn't show were the 6 book shelves full of cookbooks. I love the ones with photos because they inspire me. You and I are fortunate because we know how to cook, not afraid to try new things (well mostly) and I'd venture to say you have been cooking a long time like me. I forget there are folks out there who are just making the shift to living gluten free that ate most of their lives out of a box or take out. They are not as comfortable with tossing a bunch of ingredients together. This is why I wrote this post and that will teach me, not to write while watching American Idol. I left out my main point!
I love the tip with using the cookbooks you already have on hand and may have cooked from before. When I was new to living gluten free I bought most of the books I have shown. I wanted to see what the differences were between what I was doing and what I now had to do. I quickly realized not too much. I studied what ingredients contained gluten and which ones might and started converting recipes.
I hope if people are new to living gluten free that if there is a recipe you have made in the past and you're not sure how to convert it or what ingredients you need to change, to ask one of the gluten free bloggers you read. Leave me a comment with your question. Chances are others might have the same question. And if it's a baking question, make sure to ask Shirley!
Thank you Shirley for your tips on some other good cookbooks!