In the beginning…

It started slowly, with things that were easy to shrug off. I felt tired all the time, couldn’t focus, couldn’t keep warm. Then came the aches and the sudden, stabbing pains. I was always ghostly pale with bad skin – and there were all sorts of other issues that don’t belong on a food blog. The worst thing was the brain fog: a head full of cotton wool and endless silly mistakes. Instead of being a night owl who’d go hiking in the mountains for fun, I was in bed by 8pm sharp and still waking up exhausted. So I took myself off to the doctor.

Two years, over 40 blood tests and one diagnosis of an inexplicable vitamin deficiency later, it was suggested I cut out gluten for a while. Within a month, I was feeling like my normal self. In two, my energy and concentration had returned and people kept saying how well I looked. Unsurprisingly, I never went back.

There are so many more options now for those of us who have to keep gluten-free than there were then. But not all of it’s good. Sure, you can get GF bread, pastries, cakes and pretty much anything else you fancy and chances are it’ll look exactly like it should. And while some of it will also taste right, there’s a lot of starchy, crumbly and overly sugary nonsense out there.

I want food that tastes as good as it looks – or better – and is reasonably good for me, too. I bow to no one in my love of a pizza I don’t have to make myself, but not one that’s mostly white rice, corn syrup and, seemingly, cardboard.

Here, I’ll be making the food I want to eat. I can’t decorously frost a cupcake to save my life, but I can make sure you can’t tell it’s gluten-free. There’ll be muffins, cakes, pies, stews, soups and salads, made with lots of whole grains and no more sugar or starch than they absolutely need. And, of course, a bunch of flours.

Welcome to The Flourist. Thanks for joining me.