Recipes from our Kitchen, Tales from Richmond
Any products containing gluten? Mark them LOUDLY. As the cook, you may know what is and isn’t contaminated, but little fingers or sleep-deprived adults will not be as quick to tell the difference.
- use a skull & crossbones with a marker (we found this amusing at first!)
- Now I keep masking tape in the kitchen and put an X on those things with gluten. Plus, then you can remove the tape and re-use the container after a thorough cleaning.
In the first year, consider your kitchen as a contaminated place. There is dust in the air. The oven fan probably has flour in it. It is just easier to pretend that it is an unsafe place to cook. Sooooo,
USE DISPOSABLE COVERINGS for everything.
On occasion, I cook GF and also with gluten for the same meal. This is the exception rather than the rule though. All my pots and pans, toasters, frying pans, and cooking materials have been replaced with new ones in the last 3 years so I want to keep them gluten free.
Helpful Philosophy: Instead of keeping the GF food uncontaminated. I think of keeping the gluten uncontaminated. Therefore, nothing touches it that isn’t clean. And Everything else is made first in the meal, before the gluten is ever brought out of its hiding place. Somehow this helps me keep it separate. And my kitchen remains uncontaminated by it.
