Going Gluten-Free

The news
It's time to come out of the closet...I've gone gluten-free. After several years of increasingly bad health, painful stomach cramps and other horrible digestive issues, increased migraines, fatigue, debilitating joint and muscle pain, memory loss, foggy headedness, clumsiness, loss of coordination, walking into walls... the list goes on, I decided to go gluten-free temporarily to see if it made a difference. Mind you, this was after years of doctors telling me that I had IBS and handing me another prescription. None of them seemed concerned by the cause of all these symptoms. I didn't want to medicate the problem, I wanted to solve it. Most of all, I wanted to be healthy again. I wanted to be me again. I also did an independent test to see what those results would be. They came back positive for gluten as the culprit. So I wanted to know for sure.

With fantasies of one day going to pastry school, I didn't want going gluten free to be the answer. But I had to know. I could not continue feeling so bad and compromising so much of my life. I decided to do a 3-6 month gluten-free experiment. Mostly, I was hoping to rule it out, even though that would leave me with no obvious solutions. Going gluten-free was not as easy as I thought. It took months of research and reading and investigating to begin to understand how to eliminate my gluten exposure.

But it worked. I've gotten better. Much, much better. Initially, I was kind of bummed. No more of my newly discovered favorite pizza at Little Deli. No more traditional baking. No more of my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies or shortbread. No more food in Asian restaurants using soy sauce in their foods and marinades. No more treats from Rebecca Rather's Rather Sweet Bakery. No more naan bread in Indian restaurants. No more going into a restaurant and thinking I have the liberty of ordering what I'm in the mood for. Now I have to ask if they have even a single safe item I can eat and hope it's not cross-contaminated. No more spur of the moment dining out with friends (I have to do research first to see if it's safe) or be limited to the short list of places I have already checked out and I know are safe. Ugh.

OK. Now that I've gotten that out of my system... Here's the good part. I. FEEL. BETTER. So much better. It's a slow road back and it's not over, but almost all of those symptoms listed above are gone or going. And it feels so liberating to start feeling better and leave some of those symptoms behind, that I can let go of all those favorite foods that were making me sick and be glad to know how to feel better. I've also worked with a nutritionist to educate myself and improve my healing and recovery.

The blog
I started this blog as a way to continue to learn about food, to share recipes and to improve my photography skills. For years, I used to produce a series of recipes cards for the holidays to send to friends. It was a fun way of sharing the recipes I had tried throughout the year and that had become favorites. I would experiment, sometimes for years, with different versions of a particular dish, until I found THE ONE. You know, the one you know you'll never want to give up. The recipe you'll reach for over and over and you know your search has ended. Like the chocolate chip cookie recipe or the shortbread recipe that I mentioned earlier. It was fun to find those and share them with friends.

But I always had trouble limiting myself to the dozen or so recipes that I had to narrow it down to each year. Even with that number, the production of all those cards was quite something. This blog was a place I could share many more of those recipes that became favorites, but I could do it all year long. And they'd be archived and available anytime on the web. No more remembering recipe cards or making a list. I even use the blog archive on my iPhone at the grocery store to look up an ingredient list to make sure I'm not forgetting something. I hope other people do too.

So now, I'm going to be taking a fork in the road. I'm going to leave up my old recipes for those who can enjoy them. But I'll be making things gluten-free from here on out. For many recipes, this won't make any difference or not much of one. Sometimes the solution is to simply sub in gluten-free tamari for soy sauce or using gluten-free pasta instead of wheat pasta. So I'm glad I can still share recipes with everyone. Where it will really be different is in the baking. I'll be exploring a whole new world of baking gluten free. And I'll also be working of making gluten-free versions of those old baked favorites already in the archive.

This process has made me realize that even though I thought I knew a lot about food and was making healthy choices, I still have so much more to learn. Food is fun. But it can also be nourishing. It's supposed to be anyway, if we make the right choices.

I also have to share how incredibly inspired I have been by reading the books and blog of Shauna James Ahern, the Gluten-Free Girl. I can only aspire to her eloquence and her open-heartedness in her life and in her explorations of good eating. She has boldly and bravely and gracefully forged a path that makes the transition for others like me so much easier. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have also been overwhelmed and inspired by the stunning photography of Aran Goyoaga of Canelle et Vanille. She has recently made the transition to going gluten-free and with such style and grace, I can't help but be completely seduced by her images and recipes.

Locally, blogger and gluten-free chef Jessica Meyer of ATX Gluten-Free has been a wealth of local information and tips on eating gluten-free in Austin. She's putting together a gluten-free pizza fest on her blog in February. I can't wait. Pizza is the thing I miss most.

And I have to give a shout out to my buddies Kim and Leslie. They have both gone through this transition ahead of me and shared valuable information and resources that made things so much easier for me. Bless you both. And thanks to my sweetheart for so gracefully giving up the gluten in our house and always being so incredibly supportive. I am a lucky girl.

OK. This is way too much about me. Let's get back in the kitchen. More tasty treats coming up.

P.S. For more info on symptoms related to gluten sensitivity and celiac:
• symptom guide from Gluten Free Works

TECHmunch Austin workshop, part 2

We're back from Seattle and Vancouver. I'm got so much to share. But first, I want to finish my TECHmunch Austin wrap-up.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, TECHmunch Austin took place during SXSW this year. To read more details about the sessions on storytelling, traditional media, building your brand, selecting content, and going viral, check out this post.

The session on search engine optimization (SEO) brought together panelists Sean Percival, director of content socialization at MySpace, John Shiple, CTO of Ultralivetv.com, and Tony Adam, director of search marketing at BillShrink.

Tips from this session:

The minimum you need to do to be found by search engines:
• build your content around what people search for
• be public on blogger
• create an XML site map
• check Google's webmaster tools for diagnostics and plug-in to feed your site map

Other tips:
• use links
• host guest bloggers
• give updates on Twitter
• have your own domain name
• don't have too many posts on your home page, consider listing them by the most popular posts in sidebars
• search engines like fresh content, so don't leave your site static
• the location of content on the page doesn't matter so much anymore
• give a description of your page in the first 500 characters
• check out websitegrader.com, twittergrader.com, and bloggergrader.com
• if you want searches done on your name to link to your blog, then use your name as the link but connect it to your blog
• two-way linking is stronger
• gain visibility in forums
• link round-ups
• use more internal links
• use SEO to measure what content works


The last session covered FTC disclosure. Panelists included Brian Solis of Futureworks and the author of the newly-released Engage! and Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy.

Tips:
• list personal guidelines on your blog telling readers if you accept products as gifts for review in a header or tab on your blog for easy reference
• add a Contact Me tab with info for public relations practitioners on how to reach you
• you should always disclose any gifts over $100
• while this is a new arena for the FTC to be eyeing, know that the potential threat to a blogger for not disclosing a gift is a fine
• the FTC recommends bloggers look to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association for guidance


It looks like TECHmunch will be spreading to other locales. Sign up here to find out more about future events in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Tampa, San Francisco, Seattle, Indianapolis, and possibly more.

TECHmunch Austin workshop

Yesterday, I braved the masses of SXSW hipsters on 6th Street to attend TECHmunch Austin, a food bloggers workshop put on by Babette Pepaj, the founder and CEO of Bakespace.com, Jaden Hair, the food writer and photographer behind SteamyKitchen.com, and Austinite Natanya Anderson of FeteandFeast.com


Jaden Hair and Babette Pepaj


The workshop was promoted as a 5-hour intensive and it lived up to the billing. Babette opened the day by saying she wanted every participant to be able to leave with 3 hands-on tips from each presenter to take home and implement right away.

The day was full of one impressive presenter after another. Here are a few highlights from my notes.

Cathy Brooks, a media consultant and founder of Other Than That, told us to focus on our personal stories — and not just the "what you do" but also the "why you do it."

"We live in a time when who you are has never been more important. We have access to people's stories that we've never had before," she said.

Brooks said she had been inspired by civil rights organizer Marshall Ganz, who realized that even people who were opposed to his point of view would listen and consider his thoughts when he connected with them on an individual level and told them why civil rights were important to him personally. He told his personal story.

She advised using all of the tools available (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to tell your narrative, that those are all pieces of the puzzle.

I asked her a question about where to draw the line on personal privacy in what you share. She said everyone has to decide for themselves up front what topics are off limits and respect those boundaries. "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."





Addie Broyles, Anna Gonzalez, Erik Deutsch

Local foodie and Austin American-Statesman food writer and blogging community leader Addie Broyles joined News 8 Austin's Anna Gonzalez and moderator Erik Deutsch from ExcelPR Group in Los Angeles to discuss how to connect with traditional media.

Addie said she uses Twitter to keep up with the 100+ Austin blogs she reads. Addie has really brought together the Austin food blogging community with networking events and her comprehensive list of Austin bloggers.

Addie recommended coming up with a formal press release with photos, recipes and info about your blog and posts to submit for her consideration. She reminded bloggers to develop their news judgement in deciding what stories to pitch to her. She said she always needs stories around the holidays.

Anna Gonzalez, a senior web producer for News 8 Austin, said she reads Twitter regularly to mine for stories. She reminded bloggers to just pick up the phone and make the connection with her if you have a story idea.

Gonzalez recommended posting Twitter highlights of posts to draw more traffic to your blog. She also had a tip for anyone interested in posting video to their blog — she recommended the Kodak video recorder (over the Flip) because it has audio input for a microphone, which is very important for sound quality.



Jaden Hair

Next up, Jaden Hair talked about building your brand. She started thinking about Steamy Kitchen the traditional way, with a business plan. But then she realized she needed a more inspiring plan for herself and what she wanted Steamy Kitchen to be. So she got out the scissors and posterboard and made a "vision plan" with images representing all of the elements she wanted to include and goals she wanted to reach with her site. She keeps this up on the wall where she can see it every day to remind her of her goals and keep her motivated.

Early on, Jaden said she didn't worry about using her name when promoting her site, she focused on putting Steamy Kitchen's name everywhere instead, with the tagline "Easy Asian Recipes."

She recommended that bloggers "decide what you want to be known for and specialize in that."

She also emphasized the importance of diversification of your revenue steam. Because she's not dependent on any one source of income, there's room to maneuver if things change. Jaden writes and photographs not only for her site, Steamy Kitchen, but is also a food columnist for the Tampa Tribune, Discovery TLC, and cooks twice a month on the Daytime Show. She has also authored a beautiful cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian recipes simple enough for tonight's dinner. She said she wants the cookbook to drive traffic to her site, since that's what she owns and has complete control over. She said online ad revenue has been high the last couple of quarters, but she expects that won't last.

Jaden said her formula includes:
• Expertise - your recipes must work.
• Authentic passion – her voice and enthusiasm is the same wherever you see her.
• Diversification of revenue streams.
• Generosity of community — "You are only as successful as what you give out to the community."

Speaking of generosity and sharing with the blogging community, Jaden has partnered with her husband, Scott, and Todd Porter and Diane Cu of White on Rice Couple to produce the just launched Food Blog Forum.

Food Blog Forum "offers practical and valuable information for food bloggers from food bloggers. From useful and informative food photography and styling tips to current updates on social media and technology, FBF is a powerful resource to maximizing the potential of your food blog." What a great idea! I can't wait to check this out.



Nichelle Stephens, Emily Farris, and Cathy Erway

The next session "Selecting content, building buzz and growing readership" brought together Nichelle Stephens, co-founder of Cupcakes Take the Cake, Emily Farris, author of Casserole Crazy cookbook, and Cathy Erway, of The Art of Eating In.

These presenters discussed how their specialty interests helped them develop a niche market: cupcakes for Nichelle, casseroles for Emily and eating in in NYC for Cathy.

Their tips:
• buy your domain name
• be consistent with your subject
• be sincere

Are you getting tired yet? Yes, this was a lot of info, but very valuable.

Next up was Ben Huh on going viral and building community. Ben is the publisher of Icanhazcheezbuger and the new site, Epicute.com, focusing on cute food.

Ben emphasized the importance of building your readership with "stairstep" growth instead of a spike and then the inevitable fall that follows. He said "going viral is a myth." You have to keep quality consistently high day in and day out and deliver what your users want. Building a community around your site will help your business grown and that community will fight for you, he said.

His tips:
• post on a regular schedule for reliability
• let discussion happen, let the community make decisions, but be patient enough for that to happen
• don't change your behavior based on technology, make changes based on your audience
• more posts mean more data points for measuring success

Whew! Believe it or not, that's not even all of it. There were more sessions on search engine optimization, FTC disclosure and working with brands. I'll save those for another post.

Thanks again to everyone at TECHmunch for putting this together, especially in Austin. My only bit of constructive criticism is that everyone was a little squirmy by the end of the day from many hours of sitting in hard chairs. A break in the middle with a light lunch would have been nice. The workshop took place at Parkside restaurant, which I've been looking forward to checking out. But we didn't get much opportunity to sample their food, just a fruit and cheese platter for a snack. I, for one, would have been happy to pay a little more to be provided a real meal during the long day. But otherwise, it was a delight to meet so many other local food bloggers — I can't wait to check out all of your blogs — and to get the opportunity to ask questions and learn from the experts.

Thanks, TECHmunch! Hope you guys have a wonderful time in Austin during SXSW.

Postscript: Apparently, I missed out! After reading some other posts on TECHmunch, it looks like I must have just missed the Parkside appetizer spread after the workshop. I was twitchy from too many hours of sitting and ravenously hungry, so I headed out in search of sustenance. I saw only cupcakes (Sugar Mama's red velvet made me swoon) and cocktails. I'm bummed I missed it. Will have to try Parkside again sometime post-SXSW.

Also, wanted to mention — there are more TECHmunch events planned for Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Tampa, Indianapolis, and Seattle soon. Sign up for more info.

Want to subscribe?

Thanks to a request from a reader (aw, shucks, I'm flattered!!), I've gotten off my fanny and added RSS and email subscriptions. If you're interested in subcribing to tastype feeds, use one of the boxes on the right to get signed up.

You may also notice another recent addition to the blog, the Food Blog Search box. An incredibly useful idea... it is, in their words...

"...a custom built search engine specifically for searching recipes in food blogs. It is intended to be a useful tool for food bloggers and for scratch cooks looking for recipes and inspiration. Food Blog Search uses Google technology, through the Google Custom Search Engine program."

So if you're looking for a recipe and want to know what other bloggers have to say about it or just want to get some ideas, try it!

Big kudos to bloggers Elise of Simply Recipes, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, and Alanna of Kitchen Parade for maintaining it. You'll also notice the enchanting illustrations of Ximena Maier there as well.