Oh Joy! 2 Part Vent: 1) Kitchen Helpers; 2) Bread That Sucks

[MsQuel]

VENT 1:

 

OMG kitchen "helpers" please DO NOT help me cut my bread into slices on my cutting boards.  When I have a French loaf out as a courtesy, I usually cut it on top of the paper to minimize cross-contamination.  Then I throw the paper away and it never touches anything but knife and plates which I deem clean enough (Hail Mary) when I sanitize them in the Heavy cycle (again, this is a hope and I pray it's true because I'm not getting separate silver and plates.

 

My friend was trying to help me and being all proactive in my kitchen (this kitchen is WHY I do not go out, it's just as I want it to be except maybe I'd like granite).  He was finishing the cutting on the other stub of the loaf and moved it to MY wooden cutting board and then after the fact, asks "Is this ok"  (The same fellow who dunked his pita in my tzatziki sauce, when I made a special effort to have a SPOON out to move a dollop to each person's plate and TELLING HIM "Now I cannot use the sauce because you dunked and I have high sensitivity to crosscontamination").  WHY WHY WHY.  Kitchen helpers, please let the gluten-free person take care of his  gluten-free diet in their home.  KTHANKS.  I will tell him again but there's no account he'll remember and because he springs to his feet to help me when I don't ask or want help.

 

VENT 2:

 

One thing that I will miss the most is just making myself a simple sandwich.  I'm the mom and have 2 kids and a spouse.  I haven't done away with regular bread like I have every other thing in the house (such as no more flours or pastas in my cupboard that contain gluten).

 

So I just made a delicious looking sandwich for hubby for his lunch and a lesser version that pales in comparison for me on this horrible rice bread!  Eew... you know the brand, it has a maybe tan and orange label.  Even the "good" gluten-free bread SUCKS!

 

I'm looking at his bread knowing the exact taste and texture of that bread and that's REALLY what I'm craving.  I'm very sad that I can't have it for myself  (not really tempted at all to try, just to clarify).  I JUST WISH gluten-free BREAD DIDN'T SUCK!  My sandwich experience sucks too.  I can't do lettuce leave wraps for everything either, that's OK for one of the FEW places I trust (Jimmy John's and a certain owner-run sandwich shop 20 mins. away from me in a place with signs all over about how we can make food to your order for allergies and gluten-free).  The mere act of swallowing this bread requires a medal.  I feel like I just ate paste in baked "square" form and just hope it gets digested before it comes back up.

 

I should have just used these Back to Nature gluten-free sea salt and black pepper crackers which taste good.  Lately I don't even bother to replace the bun and just eat a hamburger medium rare to medium with grill marks and pretend I'm eating a delux sirloin steak.

[notme]

try udi's or rudi's bread products.  or scharr.  use the crappy bread for breadcrumbs.  

[ravenwoodglass]

I know that bread of which you speak. It is soooo very awful IMHO. Someone must like it though or they would have stopped making it. 

Do try UDI's it is much more like gluten bread texture wise and tastes okay. Grainless Baker makes french bread loaves that I like to use for burgers or sometimes I just make a meal of a loaf and some good cheese. 

 

I hope you can educate your friend. You might even want to guide him here and have him read the Celiac 101 thread so he better understands all you need do to be safe. 

Hope things get easier for you soon.

[CajunChic]

I like Bob's Red Mill "wonderful bread mix". I bought a bread machine and find its better than the frozen stuff. It tastes close to the gluten goodness we all knew. I add flax seeds for extra fiber. Good luck on your quest!

[BlessedMommy]

I really like Udi's hamburger and hot dog buns. My favorite bread for sandwiches and toast is Canyon Bakehouse. I also have baked my own in the past and plan to do some more baking.

 

Do keep looking around, because this is the rest of your life, so you may as well find some bread that you like, no use suffering with the horrible stuff for the next 50 years. I remember when I first started eliminating wheat (almost 6 years ago, so 2008), the bread options that were around then were horrible! We didn't have Udi's in our area and Canyon Bakehouse probably didn't even exist back then. 

 

I remember the extremely hard cardboardy unpalatable gluten-free bread. Ew! I'm glad that they have better options today. 

 

My house is 99% gluten free. (except for the isolated few gluten items that come in for my hubby and that are quarantined carefully, cooked on separate implements and removed from the house in a timely and controlled fashion) My husband and my child that don't have any gluten issues at all, eat the Canyon Bakehouse (or whatever we have at the time) right along with us and they think that it's fine. I got tired of cleaning up bread crumbs and worrying about CC all the time, so this is one way that I can relax a little in my own house.

 

I hope that you figure out a solution that makes you feel comfortable.

[vet103]

I use Schar half-baked breads or Udi's frozen when I can't find Schar, but I grew up in an E.European home and would sell my left arm for good heavy brick of bread.  BRM is the best dry mix I've found so far.  Even though I have only personally been gluten-free since April -- I have a sib and nephew who were Dx'd GSE+ several years ago, so gluten-free is nothing new to me; only 100% gluten-free is new to me.

 

If you can afford a splurge and have freezer space... When I had my EUS, I had to stay in hospital "lodging" overnight because I got propofol = no driving for 24hrs.  The hospital gluten-free bread was this heavy chewy slice of heaven.  I found out it was GFC Bakery (Arizona) Sandwich Bread.

 

... so my birthday present to myself was a sampling of Sandwich bread, Mock-Rye, Seeded Multigrain, and a banana bread. The Fedex cost completely sucked even though local "arrival day" weather predictions between 46-62° (small blessings!) let me choose 3-day Air instead of 2-day. That indulgence will likely only be October-May for me; dry-goods-only orders during the summer.  Once the heat kicks in here, 3 day shipping will be too long even with dry ice and styrofoam, and 2 day shipping $$ is outside of my rationale.

 

All four are slices of heaven in their own ways.  If friends want to know what I want for my birthday -- gift certificates!