I hope you enjoyed your holiday and are looking forward to the new year. I know I enjoyed Christmas, spending time with family and eating tons of GF goodies. This year I was in charge of Christmas dinner, and I made just about everything from scratch so I could partake in the food festivities. I made five different batches of cookies, using Better Batter; pumpkin pie from scratch, using Better Batter for the crust; a chocolate cake and frosting from scratch, with Better Batter again; and GF stuffing, using Ener-G brown rice bread. Not to mention the traditional ham and turkey as the meat dishes. Along with GF gravy. And Christmas dinner wouldn't be complete without mashed potatoes, only I laced my potatoes with cauliflower to give it a healthier twist. **Recipes to follow at a later date.** For the first time in awhile, I was stuffed at a holiday meal.
I made certain there was absolutely no foods containing gluten because I did not want to worry about cross contamination. Cross contamination is when something with gluten touches a gluten-free product. This can easily happen at a dinner table when there are two types of bread are on the table: wheat bread and GF bread. Wheat bread can contaminate GF bread in a number of ways. One, the wheat bread touches the GF bread. Another, someone who touched wheat bread then hands you a plate or a piece of GF bread. And lastly, if someone butters their wheat bread, puts the knife back into the butter container, and you butter your GF bread with the same knife and butter. If a GF food is contaminated, it is no longer considered GF and it is no longer safe for you to eat either.
The easiest way to rectify this situation is to only have GF foods on your table. But that is not a situation I normally experience. If there is only one butter on the table, and my host has been gracious enough to buy me my own rolls, I will butter my rolls first (only if the butter is new). I will also ask the host if I can serve myself first, so I don't have to worry about the utensils in the other dishes accidentally touching any wheat foods and then contaminating the GF foods - such as the meat and vegetables. Sounds crazy? It is, but it's the only way I can guarantee not getting ill. But what, it gets even more ridiculous sounding.
If you are living by yourself, you don't ever have to worry about cross contamination occurring in your own home. All you have to do is throw out, well, everything in your refrigerator that may have touched wheat products and starting over. You will also have to throw out your old toaster oven and wooden cooking utensils, and buy new ones. The same actions needs to be taken if you choose to completely ban wheat items in your home when you are sharing the food pantry with other people - this may only work if you have your own family and your spouse is on board with the decision. This is also the cheapest route to go, too.
However, that is not the case with me. I share a home with my husband and my son, who
both still eat wheat products. So now I have to buy two of everything - food related - that everyone uses - butter, jelly, peanut butter, etc. I have to label my foods with a "Gluten Free" sticker so my family knows to either not use that particular item or to be extremely careful not to contaminate my GF food. Instead of buying another toaster, keeping the old one for my family's bread use, I just preheat the oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit to toast my GF bread and waffles. I'm constantly washing my hands when I'm handling my family's wheat products, so I don't accidentally contaminate my GF food or get myself by ingesting wheat crumbs. Basically, you have to treat having Celiac's disease like a nut allergy. Good luck and please let me know if you have any questions.
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