Baking Love

My name is Willa. I am a 31 year old stay-at-home mother of three lovely children, one girl and two boys, ages five, four, and one. I have a wonderful husband, Brian. We are currently living in Los Angeles, California, where we moved to one month ago from Aberdeen, South Dakota.  California is definitely a change in culture; the range of different cuisines here is exciting and tasty.

I’m American, born and raised, but I love traveling and international food, especially making and eating it. I learned to bake growing up, mostly from my parents and my grandmother, and have found baking to be quite the stress-reliever, not to mention scrumptious.  A huge part of the appeal of baking and cooking for me is seeing how everything comes together along the way to make something delicious.

I have no formal coeliac/celiac diagnosis. There is some history of it on my mother’s side. I first began pondering going gluten-free in April 2005, after chatting with one of my cousins who does have the diagnosis. When I began the switch in the next month I noticed that I had more energy eating gluten-free, having suffered from chronic fatigue. (I had been sleeping 12+ hours a day, depending on the day, and still felt tired.) When my husband was suggested by his Naturopathic physician to go gluten-free for weight-loss, it was great to have a partner on the journey. Whether it is only a sensitivity or intolerance or not, I’m committed to cooking gluten-free for the health benefits. If anything, we eat less ready meals now.

I’ve always loved baking, but I found that after I went gluten-free three years ago that my baking was now a hobby. I bake two to three times a week, whereas before it would be two to three times a month. I haven’t had as many of the issues with gluten-free baking that I’ve read about. Perhaps I have the baking equivalent of a green thumb. Is there such a thing as a white thumb? (tee-hee)