Gluten Free Cookbooks

One week from today, I move to Davis, CA to start my life as a grad student! In preparation, I am packing, shopping, and attempting to preorganize my life.

One thing I've been doing lately is looking for gluten free recipes and cook books. My philosophy of gluten free cookbooks is this: one easy, one medium, and one hard. However, even my hard cookbook isn't THAT hard. Here's what I have:

Beyond Rice Cakes - This book is geared towards college students (especially female college students) who eat gluten free. The recipes are mostly very easy (including a cheap cookie made out of only 3 ingredients!), although they are not all healthy. Great for easy snacks and desserts, but not my choice for meals.

Gluten Free and Easy - The beautiful pictures in this book make me feel like I've bought a fancy cookbook full of normal food. While the food in here is sort of easy, some ingredients are rather expensive. I've only made one dinner from here so far, but it was great!

Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free, Reduced-Calorie Cookbook - Okay, so even though this is my "hard" cookbook, it's not that bad. I also think it's cheaper than GF&E. Plus it tells you the nutritional information for each recipe. This book is indispensable... it has a great variety of recipes that I adjust to make what I want.

But non GF cookbooks are also pretty good. For example, Glamour Magazine once put out a cookbook (now out of print) called Glamour's Gormet on the Run. It's a great cookbook, and many recipes are GF or can easily be made GF with a few substitutions. I also keep a journal with gluten free recipes that I have copied from cookbooks, the internet, or my parents. It's amazing how easy it can be to cook gluten free with just a few substitutions. Not that you can make everything easily, though. I wish!

Still, my recommendation to anyone who has just been diagnosed with CD is this: learn to cook. It will make your life much easier.

I'll be sharing some recipes in the blog from now on. Not from cookbooks though... from my own kitchen. I created a GF tortilla "pizza" last year that calmed my pizza cravings while still being GF and low calorie. I'll share that soon, although it is mostly common sense...

PS... If for some crazy reason you don't want to make food with a flour mix from the store or you are annoyed with the many different flour blends that GF cookbooks recommend you make on your own, I love Superfine Brown Rice Flour. It's just brown rice flour, but is not gritty like some of them. It may not be great in desserts (although I can vouch for it in cookies), but it's great in muffins, soups, and breads as a direct substitute for wheat flour.

Looking for Apartments

Hey. Short blog today, but since I haven't been here in a week or so I thought I should update.

I'm in Davis, CA looking for someplace to live. Sadly, there really aren't any affordable one bedrooms here this time of year (they're all gone). So instead, I'm looking at two bedroom apartments. However, I won't have (and don't want) a roommate for next year. The good news is that my parents are willing to pay part of my rent. Their reasoning is that if I have an extra bedroom, they can stay there instead of a hotel room. Basically as long as they plan to stay at least 12 days a year, they will have saved money on a hotel.

But keep in mind, I'm flying over here. So I have barely any stuff. 900 square feet + minimal furniture from Ikea and a few amenities = tons of extra space. Looks like I'm going to have to take up yoga or something. Since I won't have much, I might even be able to organize in a very zen kind of way.

Some goals for the new place:

1. Garden. Probably in pots, unless I pick one of the few places with a yard. Hopefully I'll have an herb garden and grow some cherry tomatoes. Yum!
2. Stay neat. It's my theory that when you have less stuff, messes stick out more. Although, if I put everything away my place will look really really empty.
3. Take care of what I do have. I'll get some cheap furniture from Ikea, so it won't be great stuff, but I don't want to have to replace anything during the 5 years I'm out here.
4. Get furniture that fits me. I'm 5'0" with shorter legs as well, so this is harder than it sounds. I'll probably have to cut pieces off of chair and table legs.
5. Invite people over. My fellow math classmates for example!
6. Pets? Not everyplace I'm looking at allows pets. However, I would potentially like a cat. We'll see.

So, that's what I've got so far. Anyone else have any suggestions?

The Graduate

Hey everyone!

I haven't been online much because of finals week and senior week (I was partially packed for most of senior week and was kept fairly inebriated by my school... I don't want to see any more wine for a week...), but now all of that is over. I'm home.

I wore enough extra stuff on graduation day to earn the following remarks:
"You look like a Christmas tree."
"You need a little bit of red in there."

I had a feeling I would look like that. Thank goodness I'm not foreign, or I might have been wearing an even more colorful set. In addition to wearable awards, I won an award for "outstanding academic achievement and contribution to furthering International understanding and exchange." Keep in mind, I was just an Asian studies minor... I'm a bit shocked, but honored. They gave me a puzzle box! There is very little I love more than puzzle boxes, although they had no way of knowing that.

Anyway, I received a Kindle 2 as a graduation present, and am infatuated by it. I'm planning to read as much as possible... additionally I'm doing directed reading, teaching a course for the new Regents Exam in Algebra, tutoring, and trying to find a place to live in Davis. I never claimed to be capable of not doing anything...

To all of you finding this blog entry though facebook/twitter, welcome!

Studying...

I know, my second post in less than twenty minutes. But this is really on a different topic.

I'm studying for finals now and, hypothetically, I'm less burnt out than I was last week. Still, I have an exam tomorrow, one on Saturday, and a project due Monday. I am going home for Mother's Day. I kind of doubt that I will have much time to write on my blog (and my three followers are also students, so I doubt they have time either). So, probably no more writing until Tuesday.

Good luck with everything!

News Story Update

So... the letter I sent to the news company? I got a response, and now I'm going to be interviewed later this month! I want to make it clear to anyone reading this, or seeing the news story, that there have been many helpful individuals at my school, but that there have been some unavoidable problems:

1. Unlike at Binghamton University, there is no "gluten free section" of the cafeteria or kitchen. Anything can be, and probably is, contaminated.
2. Although gluten free foods are often marked, there is not always something gluten free at every meal.
3. To get special gluten free food, I was required to call ahead, then wait at the cafeteria for someone to make me food (despite calling ahead, they never started cooking until I arrived). Also, if they ran out of some kind of gluten free food, they did not always restock it.
4. I still usually eat off of the salad bar, since most meat is breaded, served with questionable sauce, or served in something with wheat.
5. They changed the cafe this year, and the gluten free menu items I was used to using as a backup for when the cafeteria was too difficult disappeared. They were not replaced by anything.

All of these things happened, not because people weren't willing to help me, but because I am at a small school where only a tiny fraction of people do not eat gluten. Thus, it was not cost effective to implement special measures to accommodate me. For any situation where I might not be able to eat, I have to call beforehand, because otherwise there will not be food for me. On the other hand, if I do call ahead I am usually fine. I just do not think this is reasonable on an everyday basis. As a student, I really don't want to have to think about calling every time I have to eat.

So, really, I just want people to be aware that at smaller schools they might have to fend for themselves more often. They really need to be aware of the kitchen staff and any gluten free options. Learning that the french fries at the cafeteria (but not the cafe) were gluten free went a long way towards my being able to eat well at school. However, as I said before, it may be necessary to go to a larger school to get better options.

Stress, stress, and more stress...

I'm trying incredibly hard to stay on track this week, which is why the blogging is ebbing from the first three days. The last month or so in a nutshell:

1. Visit UC Davis for 4 days. Take the last 4 of my flights and then go home, not much worse for wear, but certainly a few days behind.
2. Catch up on homework that got put off because I was traveling.
   
3. Work on a group project. Group projects are almost always extremely stressful for me.
4. Decide where to go to school (UC Davis... yay!).
5. Finish writing my honors thesis... stay up until 5AM the night before it is due (haha that was fun!).
6. Have two exams within a week of the thesis being due...
7. Go to the Math/CS department dinner. Win awards.
8. Catch up on all of the homework that built up while I was writing my thesis.
9. Run into a bunch of very professional fundamentalist christians (I didn't capitalize christian for a reason: most Christians are nice people, although I disagree with them on most things. These people were not nice.) trying to tell students not to have sex, not to be gay, not to be a woman having a real job or wearing pants, and not to believe in anything science tells you. I found this to be particularly infuriating, although I kept my head.
10. Get so stressed out that I can't be around people... go to a councilor to work out how to communicate the fact that I need to be alone more effectively.
11. You don't even want to know how much homework I had last week.
    
12. Do my honors oral exam. Get honors! Realize that now I have to revise my honors thesis.
13. Work up a stats presentation at the last minute with my partner (no... this was a different group project, and my partner totally rocks!)
14. Go to an awards ceremony. Get awards I already knew about. Yay!
15. Finish writeup of stats presentation.

I'm currently on number 16, which is write a 50 minute presentation of my honors project to show to everyone!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm really happy with everything I did and I'm really proud of myself. But I'm at the end of my rope. Luckily, after tomorrow I have very little left to do until exams start (Friday). It's just that I know I haven't been able to keep up with everything else very well. I pretty much gave up on a problem for one of my classes because I just couldn't work any more.

One other problem: while I'm working my butt off to try to get everything done in a reasonable period of time, everyone around me (ie my neighbors, not my friends, who either almost or exactly as swamped as I am) are partying. Late at night. So I don't even get much sleep on top of it.

As for right now, my boyfriend is bringing me a glass of wine. Aww... how sweet! I guess I will sleep tonight.

The next blog post will be more fun. I swear!

Sodexho: Gluten Free or Not?

eI don't have much time for an entry, since this weekend's to do list is huge. However, since I just took the time to write this, I figured I would post it. After all, most likely it's never going to see the light of day otherwise.

Yesterday, an article ran about eating gluten free at Binghamton University. Impressive, huh? Apparently Sodexho is right on top of this...

But wait... is this the same Sodexho that I have right here at my school that can't seem to have even one gluten free option other than salad during lunch on most days? Yes. It is.

When I was looking at schools, I was told Sodexho would take care of me, but whoever told me that had no clue what happens at little schools. So I sent the following letter to the news team that did the story:

Dear News Team,

Thank you very much for doing a story about students with Celiac Disease. As a student who has been dealing with this problem since I was 17, I have really appreciated the attention on school cafeterias that cater to food intolerances and allergies.

I am a bit worried, however, about the insinuation that Sodexho is a company that accommodates food intolerances and allergies. This is not really the case, although I was led to believe this as well. I currently attend a small liberal arts college that also has Sodexho dining. Although I have had some help from individual staff members, overall my experience has been less than satisfactory. In the article, you say "[Having a variety of gluten free dishes is] nice because it's easy for someone who's GF to fall into an eating rut, because they know certain things are safe to eat." I had to pick myself out of this rut, with very little help, after eating almost nothing but salad at the dining hall for two years. Also, smaller dining halls do not have designated gluten free areas, so anything could be contaminated. A friend with nut allergies cannot eat in the dining hall on any day that they have prepared a food with nuts (which is almost always). On top of that, many schools require students to have a meal plan, especially smaller schools where this seems to be the biggest problem.

Now that I am a senior and am living in an apartment with a kitchen, I feel much better. I am eating a larger variety of foods, and I am far less likely to become sick. It would be great if you could encourage entering freshmen to look very carefully into campus dining, gluten free options, and the ease of cooking for yourself as a student. I love my small college, so I hate to say this, but it may be necessary for those of us with dietary restrictions to go to larger schools.

Thank you again.

Air Conditioning

I have a confession to make: I hate air conditioning. It's not that I don't understand why other people like it. But it has never once helped me out. More often, I find myself wondering how to deal with the temperature difference. I spend way too much time trying to figure out if I want to freeze or bake. The would you rather die in fire or ice question becomes more and more relevant.

For some background, I'm from upstate NY. Upstate is not exactly AC weather. In my town, the average high temperature in July is 81, and it drops to a comfortable (if you're not me) 57 at night. I love 75 and above, but often shiver below that. Right now, the AC is on, I'm in my room with the window open and I have my sweatshirt and sweatpants on. It is 88 degrees out according to my computer, but I'm freezing in here.

Hence the AC rant. But seriously, I don't like the severe temperature differences. Sure, it feels nice to go to 65 after being out in 90... but only for a few minutes. Then the chill begins to set in.

Living where I do, I'm sure that other people actually need AC so that they don't overheat. But then I've never lived anywhere like that. I'm hoping I will make my peace with AC out in Davis next year, but then, who knows?

Ah... the AC just turned off. Excellent! Now maybe I can focus on writing my response paper!

The Hazards of Love

During college, my musical interests have shifted quite a bit. My favorite album my senior year of high school was American Idiot. Of course, that's just an example. But then, the real constant loves have been R.E.M., Eisley, and Dido. Recently, I feel like I've found a new niche in folk rock, especially new stuff. Which is why The Decemberists have really got my attention right now.

They were just on the front cover of Paste Magazine, the only nonacademic magazine I currently subscribe to. As a result, I just had to listen to the album again from the beginning. I'm shocked to hear that The Rake is probably going to be the single that will be on the radio! I guess maybe it is a bit more radio ready than the other songs... but it's their most violent song ever, for certain. Very creepy. I don't think it will do that well. But then, this is not really much of a singlezy album. There's a story. Whenever one of the songs come up on random, I always want the context. Unlike American Idiot, the songs don't do too well when they aren't in order. But this album is way better than American Idiot ever was.

Wow... I just compared American Idiot and the Hazards of Love... what am I thinking?

Anyway, the Decemberists will be near Phili this summer at some point. I'm trying to decide whether to go. Bryan wants to go with me. It's not that I don't want to go (I really really want to see them do the whole album live), but that I am not sure when I am going to California to look for apartments and my brother and I will be going to Darien Lake at some point to ride the rides and see a concert (Coldplay with the incredible Pete Yorn maybe?) Lately, I've gone to quite a few concerts, more this year than in my whole life up to then, and I really really love them. Well, if I love the band...

In the last year, I've seen R.E.M., Colbie Calliat, Blue Oyster Cult, Hootie and the Blowfish, the Indigo Girls, and... less exciting... Tower of Power and some really famous jazz musician and his band. I saw those last two in Japan with Bryan's family. Not really my kind of music.

So, I'm really tempted to see some more stuff. But there's only so much time.

Bands I would love to see:
The Weepies
Pete Yorn
Coldplay
The Decemberists
Sixpence None the Richer (They're back!!!)
Eisley
Tristan Prettyman
Evanescence
John Mayer
KT Tunstall
Fleetwood Mac (Or at least Stevie Nicks... Hey, I can dream)

Okay... I'm finally going to really do this... I hope

For a long time, I have wanted to blog. And the fact that I haven't isn't really because I haven't tried. Somewhere out there is a dead Xanga account, and I seem to remember a dead Livejournal account too. (And of course, Blogger's spell check recognized Blogger, but not Xanga or Livejournal and, surprisingly, not Blogger's, go figure.) But back when I used those two services, I was still a total forum geek and a moderator at an anime forum that I will not name in case people try to actually find me. Suffice it to say it is still very very popular. That took up most of my internet life from ages 11-19. My internet dynamic has changed, as has the websites I watch.

I used to watch that forum and my e-mail. I don't particularly remember what my startup routine was. But now, I go straight for the webcomics after I check my e-mail. My favorites are xkcd, Questionable Content, and Nemu*Nemu. I also read Nowhere University and Twisted Pencil. I've been reading the former for years (since my forum days!) and I started reading Twisted Pencil after meeting the author for the n-th time at a grad school visit.

So why do I think blogging might work out for me this time? Well, I'm moving. Seriously moving. To California. Next year, I'm entering the Grad Group in Applied Math at UC Davis. I hope that maybe I can communicate with my friends this way, since I won't see them much. Also, it would be nice to be able to bounce some of my ideas off of some more people on the net.

So, me in a nutshell. After several years of middle and high school, I realized that what I was good at was... school. Well, maybe a few more things than that. But careerwise I did not know what to do. I loved music, acting, playing tennis, Karate, writing, and I read so many books that, now, it's impossible for me to believe how much time I had to do it. All of that was in my spare time (which no longer truly exists). My favorite subjects, until 12th grade, were Physics, Chemistry, Math, English, and History. 12th grade English destroyed that interest since we read really horrible books (most because they were boring, but some because they were actively "anti-intelligence") and had to analyse them in a way our teacher agreed with. She taught her own graduate thesis. It was horrible.

I loved History still, but I wanted to go into science. The first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was Sherlock Holmes, because of The Great Mouse Detective, which was my favorite movie for years. But I have at various times wanted to be a Meteorologist, an Astrophysicist, an Astronomer, a Detective, Benjamin Franklin, a Writer, a Dancer, a Singer, an Actor, a Microbiologist, an Astronaut, an Engineer, and a Chemist. I think Ben Franklin is the most revealing of these... it means I just wanted to do everything!

In high school, I decided I liked science because I liked math, instead of the other way around, and decided to become an Applied Mathematician. As someone who loves to write (and whose interests have recently been somewhat vindicated), I decided I didn't need a degree in English or Creative Writing to persue it. But I did need a degree in Math to be a Mathematician. So... here's where I am now.

This summer, I will not have a steady job. This is sort of deliberate. Over the last few years, I have done summer research, taken classes, and just generally worked on math. I decided I needed a summer off. I will be working on a directed reading of a book on Partial Differential Equations this summer. I will also be tutoring, teaching a review class, and, hopefully, writing. Maybe this summer I can relax and do some of the things I haven't done in a long time.

Like blogging.