This is the Belgrade I Love: Bela in Belgrade

Our Pine Forest Glen

This is the Belgrade I love with the Bela I love (yes, she was named after her birth city) on our daily walk through Košutnjak National Park.  We truly live the best of both worlds here: downtown Belgrade 12 minutes away and a national forest at our doorstep!

Pure Joy!

SpouseAbroad/CeliacAbroad: My New Split Personality

http://tobacco.stanford.edu

So, this is an interesting development in my already cram-packed adventurous life.  My recent diagnosis of celiacs is rocking my world.  It's a bit overwhelming and hard to believe.

You see, I'm one of those folks who resists diet trends.  I'm a true believer in moderation, with an emphasis on unprocessed foods.  I'm also a skeptic.   Remember when eggs were bad for you?  Remember the cabbage soup diet?  The grapefruit diet? The juice diet?  Then the high carbs diet of the 80's?  But, wait, Atkins and South Beach turned that around in the 90s.   In the 30s and 40s, smoking was the diet trend of the times.  Need I say more?  Along with my skepticism is an inkling that diet trends are mere marketing trends, good ole entrepreneurship at work.  Remember when McDonalds had an Atkins Salad on the menu?

Today, a gluten-free diet is topping the diet fads of 2013, "about 1.6 million people in the U.S. are on a gluten-free diet even though they haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease," www.cbsnews.com.  And celiac disease is a serious matter.  For about a year now, I've been sick with the usual overseas stuff that usually lasts a week or two, not 52 weeks.  My weight plummeted, along with my energy.  I was back to having that all-day "morning sickness" nausea that I had when I was pregnant.  There was pretty much absolutely no-way I was pregnant.  We made sure of that.  Doctors thought is was stress.  Okay, but for  a year?  As you all know, living abroad is stressful, but I wasn't moving that year, we aren't bidding, and life has been relatively calm for the last, at least, 6 months.  In May of last year, I had blood tests done just to make sure it wasn't anything more than stress.  Everything came back fine.  No antibodies for Celiacs; my cholesterol was REALLY low and my calcium levels, too, but nothing alarming.  When things hadn't gotten better by the one anniversary of my Montezuma's revenge, I made an appointment with a gastro-intestinal specialist here.  I mean, really.  Enough is enough.

More blood tests showed that my cholesterol and calcium levels were even lower which indicated nutritional deficiencies, malabsorption (um, ya think?).  I had an endoscopy with biopsies done (no sedative, by the way- NOT recommended, unless you like having a banana stuck in your throat).  Lo and behold, I am one of the very few people who do not produce antibodies for celiac disease, "an auto immune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages." The biopsies were done of my small intestine which, from the way I understand it, has these minute fingers called villi which absorb the nutrients in your food and distributes them to the rest of your body.  In celiacs, gluten (this gets a bit complicated for me) somehow makes your body attack the villi that eventually become little nubbies that can't grab the food.  Well, my little villi were itsy, bitsy nubbies.  It's pretty much, hands down, celiacs.  Period.

There are two great things about this diagnosis (yes, I'm digging for the pony).  First, it can be treated without meds; I just have to eat a gluten-free diet for life.  Second, I won't be in the bathroom so much. That's a plus.

Now the downside.  In addition to being trendy, gluten-free eating is a pain in the butt (no pun intended).  And here's the kicker.  The following facts are the most annoying, bothersome, angst-ridden craziness of this whole celiacs thing.  

Studies say that celiacs can tolerate 10 mg of gluten a day.   

Okay, fine.  
But just, wait:

There are about 24-30 mg of gluten in a crumb of bread.

AHHHHHHHHH!

A CRUMB.

Cross-contamination just took on a whole new meaning in my life.

My gluten-free life is no fad.  No trend is cool enough to make me wear surgical gloves while I prepare toast and pancakes for my kids.  Nothing is so fashionable that it would make me say, "So, I guess I've eaten my last chocolate chip cookie. Ever."

Constant diarrhea.  Now that's enough to make me dump that fresh, out of the oven, springy, soft, buttery bread in the trash. Not without tears, though.

Good-bye gluten.  Sniff.

I'm breaking out of the bathroom.

It's time to start my new, healthy life.  

Baking, Baking, Baking and then . . . Celiacs

http://comfybelly.com/2012/12/peace-truffles/#.UTI-gaWhDHi

My baking class at the Belgrade American Corners is a hit.  The class is booked every time.   I even got a mention in the State Highlights for "culinary diplomacy."  Too funny!  Who would of thought?

So, I'm feeling like Rachel Ray.  I already have a fan club (sort of) and I'm canvassing my family and friends for good ole American baked goods when . . . I'm diagnosed with Celiacs Disease.  Well, that just blows (no pun intended).  What is the most common ingredient in any baked good, any American baked good?  Flour.  Flour=Gluten, a Celiacs nightmare.

So, surgical gloves on hand and miniature helpers at my side, I'm soldiering on, breaking down borders with my baked goods!

Here are the recipes from my last class, converted to the metric system with vocabulary words on the side.  You can edit the vocab list in the printable version to use the home country language where you live.  Check out the Meat Loaf, and Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies recipe!

Carry on, Bakers!  We're serving up World Peace in our bowls!

Please click on the link below each recipe for the printable version!

Sweet and Salty English:  Meat Loaf

Adapted from “Every Day Meat Loaf,” by Mrs. A.R. Rabuck

Ingredients: ⅔  cup (c) bread crumbs 1 c milk ½ kg or 1kg ground meat ¼ c grated onion ⅛ teaspoon (tsp) pepper 2 beaten eggs 1 tsp salt ½ tsp ground sage Piquant Sauce: Combine: 3 tablespoons (Tbsp) brown sugar ¼ tsp ground nutmeg ¼ c ketchup 1 Tbsp mustard Preheat oven to 180 °C. Soak bread crumbs in milk.  Add meat, eggs, onion and seasonings.  Mix well.  Pour sauce over mixture in loaf pan (22cm  x  12cm). Bake at 180°C for  1 hour .

English Serbian ingredients састојци loaf векна bread crumbs хлебне мрвице ground meat млевено месо grated onion наренданог лука pepper бибер sage Приземље жалфија piquant пикантан sauce сос brown sugar зути шећер ground nutmeg Приземље о рашчић ketchup кечап mustard сенф preheat предходно загрејати oven пећ to soak потопити seasonings зачини over на pan тигањ

Click here for the free printable Meat Loaf recipe!

Sweet and Salty English:  No Flour Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten-Free)

Ingredients: 1 cup (c) sugar 1 c natural peanut butter 1 large egg Preheat oven to 190 °C. Mix all three ingredients.  Roll dough into 2 cm balls.  Place on a greased cookie sheet 5 cm apart.  Use the flat bottom of a glass to flatten each ball or press flat with a fork. Bake for exactly 9 minutes.  Let cookies cool in the pan for a few minutes before placing them on a cooling rack. Eat when cool.  They are firmer that way. Yield: 36 cookies

English Serbian ingredients састојци peanut butter путер од к икирикија to roll котрљати dough тесто greased подмазан cookie sheet Колачић плех apart одвојено flat (pressed) глатко flat bottom of a glass глатко дном од чаше to flatten (to press) притиснути fork виљушка exactly тачно to let (to allow) дозволити to cool охладити се to place ставити cooling rack хлађење сталак firm чврст that way тако

Click here for the free printable Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe!

Sweet and Salty English: Teaching English Through Baking: American Pancakes

By The U.S. Army (Culinary Soldier) [CC-BY-2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Last month at the American Corners in Belgrade I premiered “Sweet and Salty English,” teaching English through baking. That’s right, baking. Julia Childs re-incarnate. Well, not really, but it's really cool! Each month spouses will showcase American baked goods that are not common in Serbia. We’ll teach them how to make our favorite sweet comfort foods like chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and pancakes. What better way to spread goodwill than through sugar? 

By Joshua

Serbians specialize in crepes (sweet and savory ones- my mouth is watering as I type), but have rarely tasted good ole fluffy American pancakes. So, on a Saturday morning, in my typical Balkan trolley cart, I lugged an electric griddle, a transformer, all the ingredients in individual Tupperware, and my grandmother’s apron (for good luck!). I had converted all the ingredients into the metric system, translated some tricky words and printed out copies of the recipe. At the Corners, I had volunteers come up and help me prepare the pancakes; they were appalled at the lumpy batter and amused by the bubble test. When all was said and done, we gobbled down the delicious pancakes. A journalist from Mondo newspaper filmed the baking demonstration and posted the recipe online. My kids thought I was famous. 

My trusty trolley cart

Since it was such a hit, I thought other spouses abroad might want to reach out to their local communities sharing something all people love: Sweets! All you need are copies of the recipes, the ingredients (make sure you can get them locally), and the finished product (since actual oven use might be a logistical issue). Each month I’ll have a copy of the recipes on my blog for you to share and enjoy. Click here for the printable version of the recipe. Prijatno! Give me some sugar!

Sweet and Salty English

American Pancakes

English	Serbian
Ingredients	састојци
Flour	Брашно
Sugar	Шећер
baking powder	прашак за пециво
Salt	Со
Milk	Млеко
Oil	Уље
Egg	јаје
Mixing bowl
To combine	комбиновати
To mix, to stir	мешати
stroke	замах
To moisten	овлажити
Lump	Грумен
Griddle/frying pan	Тигањ
To bounce	одскакивати
To sputter	пуцкетање
To grease	премазати
To turn	окренути
Rim	обод
broken	сломљен
bubble	мехур

Ingredients:

1 cup (225 ml) flour

1-2 tablespoons (15-30ml) sugar

10 grams baking powder

½ teaspoon (5ml) salt

175 ml milk

2 tablespoons (30ml) vegetable oil

1 egg, slightly beaten

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix the milk, butter and egg in a small bowl.  Quickly stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones, mixing with just a few strokes to moisten the flour.  There will still be lumps.

Heat griddle or frying pan until a drop of water will bounce and sputter.  Grease lightly.  Spoon on batter, spreading cakes to the size you want.  Don’t crowd or they’ll be hard to turn.  Turn when the rims are full of broken bubbles and before center bubbles break (takes about 2-3 minutes).  Turn only once.  The second side won’t take as long.

Yield: 12 small pancakes