celiac disease and some work

gluten free chocolate banana bread

in our house, everything i cook and bake is gluten free.  my youngest son has celiac disease, which basically means that when he eats gluten it sets off an immune reaction that damages his small intestine and causes malabsorption among other things.  bad stuff.  the only cure is abstaining from any and all gluten.  gluten is the devil in our house.  the prevailing wisdom is that anything over 20 parts per million will cause the villi in the small intestine to begin to flatten interfering with the absorption of nutrients.  how much is 20 ppm?  how can we measure that?  i have no idea, so at least in our home, we try to minimize the risk.  i am allergic to wheat which is a completely different thing, but having a celiac in the house makes it easier to avoid it.

since this is a blog, i thought i'd share a couple of excellent blogs on how to live and cook gluten free.  some you may have heard of and some maybe not.  first is the gluten free goddess.  karina's blog is just a feast for the eyes, with so much information, beautiful photos (she's an artist) and equally beautiful stories to tell along with her recipes.  she's also dear to us because when middle son was starting a gluten free blog, he reached out to her and she reached back, emailing and helping him learn the ropes of blogdom.  next is another biggie, the gluten free girl.  recipes, photos, videos, and a love story are all here.  elana's pantry uses almond meal and flour for baking.  celiac chicks has restaurant and bakery reviews and more.  then there is book of yum for the vegetarian celiac.  one more and i'll stop, i promise.  i just found roost, a gorgeous blog about a young woman's quest to treat her husband's crohn's disease naturally by going gluten free among other things. 

here's some photos of the progression of one of the pages in the sketchbook project i'm working on.  i finally chose a theme for it from the provided list - learning how to spell and other lessons - something like that.  i'm liking parts of this page and i may make it into something more at some point.

so how's your week been?  passover starts on good friday and then easter sunday, what a weekend!  i haven't even decided what to make for easter dinner.  any ideas?