going gluten-free

kirk is. i’m not going gluten-free, except that i kind of am, just by virtue of inhabiting space with him.

turns out that, ironically enough for someone who bakes constantly, he is allergic, or whatever, to gluten. the stuff that’s in wheat and oats and i don’t know what all else that holds it all together.

he hasn’t had any gluten for two weeks, and feels much better for it.

there’s more irony.

i’m trying to return somewhat to my meat-free past. for health reasons mostly. and lots of the meat-analog stuff i like to eat, for instance seitan, morningstar farms veggie burgers, fake lunch meat, and whatnot, is all made out of. you guessed it.

gluten.

so our fridge and our kitchen is getting a bit schizo. i have my fake bologna for my lunchtime sandwich, next to the salami that i’ve bought for kirk’s lunchtime sandwich. i’m snacking on all the things that kirk has stopped eating, like graham crackers, even though i don’t really like graham crackers. i’m too cheap to throw out a $1 box of graham crackers.

some things are better, though. we bought rice pasta and quinoa pasta, neither of which are wheat-based and therefore have no gluten. and i’ll be damned if the stuff isn’t pretty good. it’s different from regular pasta, but it has a risotto-like creaminess that is damn good.

and kirk is still baking–he’s just learning to bake with gluten-free flour which is, of course, a challenge. but, talented baker that he is, the gluten-free bread he made for the week’s lunch sandwiches is really good. and i’m sure that it will only get better.

in a way, although he’d probably beg to differ, he’s lucky in that although i’m sure he misses bread and whatnot, he’s interested in making alternatives, and has the talent to do it. other people just cheat and eat the gluten-laden stuff occasionally, because they don’t have a ready option. try to find ready-made gluten-free products. it’s hard, and when you find them you could go broke buying them.

all of this is not to say that kirk has had his last piece of bread. i can’t imagine that he’ll spend a week in paris without eating a baguette.

but, for as badly as he has felt for as long as he has felt badly, i’m sure he’s happy to have an answer, and a plan of attack. to paraphrase dorothy zbornak in my favorite golden girls episode of all time, “he has a disease, and his disease has a name.”

he’ll love that allusion.

it’s celiac disease, i think. not celeriac disease. i think he could do without celery root pretty easily. celiac is harder.

wish him luck, and strength. i do.