warning: ancient crone blood

Currently working on experiments in gluten free bread baking, because I'm in love with/super good friends with enough people with gluten intolerance that I want to be able to provide nommy gluten free things. Plus I really appreciate it when people meet my access needs, there's something about being so fundamentally seen and heard and yes. So when I can do that for other people it's a gift to them, but also like I'm sort of paying that feeling forward. I am heady with success because the other night I modified a recipe that killingrose was kind enough to share with me, and it even worked *really well* on the first. time. Which. Yay.

Working on test batch number two, in which I am also making additional changes (mostly based on "ingredients I have on hand" and also "apparently I'm incapable of following exact directions in recipes AND knitting patterns"). I kind of prefer the method of "understand the fundamental principles enough that you know what to play with, and be okay with the possibility that you might not understand as much as you think and will have learned something but have to dump it in the trash whoops."

Also because once I stop following direct instructions and just start following my gut with what I think the bread/yarn/whatever needs next, I am more likely to get into flow. And flow is wonderful for a number of reasons, chief among them being I don't notice how much pain I'm in.

Anyway, this WAS just going to be a post about bread science and how the primary issue with making tasty gluten free bread is that gluten is the protein structure that makes bread stretchy and delicious. So I noticed the recipe I'm using is basically "a bunch of ways to use binding agents etc to make the bread not just fall apart once it gets out of the oven" but also you have to compensate for "it's not going to look *exactly* like bread dough because it's very very sticky".

While I was kneading the dough I in the mixer, trying to gauge when was "enough" mixing (and also enough flour, because it varies depending on humidity etc") I started to have feels. Good feels, but feels. Fair warning: apparently menopause brings ALL the feels.

I'm seeing a specialist for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in October (FINALLY OMG) and the underlying issue with EDS is that your body doesn't manufacture collagen the same way everyone else does. Collagen is referred to as your body's "glue", so it causes systemic issues in various unexpected ways.

Anyway, basically I started looking at the gluten free bread I was trying to create and thinking "it me!" because, y'know, structural instability. I started feeling like the extra binding agents were similar to all the braces and other accessibility device I use to accommodate for my atypical collagen.

There are times when cooking is science. There are times when it is poetry (because omg I'm sure there is a poem in here, waiting). There are times when cooking is kitchen witchery.

Standing has been really hard lately, so I'm really glad to grab the moments when I have a little more cope and do some cooking. But I'll probably be looking at more "adaptive cooking methods" which will be interesting, because I'm pretty sure I usually compensate for arm/wrist issues by standing and using my whole body weight. So. Fun times.

This post is dedicated to jjhunter, who was supposed to be getting something about the alchemy of creating lentils but got this instead. Whoops?

[Note: suggestions for gluten free recipes and also cooking accommodations to try/think about are welcome on this post]

[with apologies to folks not in countries celebrating this holiday, who may be sick of hearing about it]

Partner and I started planning Thanksgiving Dinner the other night. There are going to be anywhere from 7-10 people here. Eesh. I started making a list, but it Did Not Work for partner's brain. So instead we have a visual representation of everything *on* the list, along with symbols for whether it needs to be served hot (prep at the time) or cold (prep before), or if someone else is bringing that particular dish.


sketches of every dish/drink our family hopes to serve at Thanksgiving along with associated symbols and even stick figures of potential guests
( 1 more photo below the cut )

In case anyone is interested, here are a couple of really delicious recipes we've used over the years. If you notice that many of them are from FoodWishes, you would be correct.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes
Tangerine Cherry Cranberry Sauce
Pecan and Apricot Sourdough Bread Stuffing

And if you're looking for the Pumpkin Muffin recipe, I'm going to put it below a cut. Might ask partner for links to some of the recipes she knows more about (like crispy duck).
( Pumpkin Muffin Recipe )