Our oldest daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease this summer. Her symptoms weren't too severe--a tummy ache now and then--but through a blood test and an endoscopy the doctor diagnosed her in about 3 weeks. (That is a small miracle in itself!) Her treatment is this--no ingesting gluten (wheat, barley, and rye) ever again. It's much better than having to take drugs in my opinion, but a life change nonetheless.
I came back to our country (nicknamed "The bread basket of the world") armed with new recipes, cookbooks, a few non-gluten flours, and a 1980 Vita-mixer powerhorse that we could grind up rice, almonds, etc. We discovered some good recipes that work well here--a delicious almond cake, pancakes, and lemon coffee cake. However, getting the flours mixed (if I ran out of my imported mixes) took a little bit of time. Grinding up the rice and then straining it so that we wouldn't have any chewy bits in our cakes. Mixing the cornstarch and other flours along with my rice flour and a little bit of almond flour (ground through the blender AND the coffee grinder) for some protein. Yep, a little bit of time.
Yesterday I was at the neighborhood corner store and I found this package of ground rice flour! I have never seen these even in the big stores in the big cities! I almost shouted. The manager came out of a side door as I was fingering these bags and I held them up with a big smile and great thanks! He said that they had just come in that day and promised that he will always stock them for me--ground rice flour and rice couscous. Wow! Only a few pennies more than the regular rice I was buying. I feel like these were hand-picked for us to make our days a little smoother. Again, thank you Lord.
