I’m launching a new blog. No, it is not a replacement for this one. I’ll keep blogging away about my writing life here on Comedy or Tragedy, but I’ll also start posting recipes over on Gluten Free, No Substitutes.

So, yes, the new blog is a food site devoted to recipes that those (like me) who eat gluten free can safely prepare and eat. BUT, it is also a food site devoted to really good food that just happens to not include gluten. So, by no substitutes I mean no weird tapioca-rice-potato flour bread or strange corn-sawdust pasta or sad almond-sand-gravel pancakes.

When I went to my doctor whingeing that I was abnormally tired all the time and that my digestion sucked, she suggested I might have a gluten intolerance. I scoffed, mostly because I thought it would be TOTALLY FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE to cut wheat-based products from my diet. No pizza? No hamburgers? NO CAKE? Forget it.

Finally, though, I gave in and tried it. Honestly, giving up those foods was not really very hard. The actual hardest part was finding recipes and meal suggestions that weren’t all about desperately trying to still have pizza, pasta, bread, and cake but made into sadder, inferior versions.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a few pretty acceptable substitutes out there for gluten and wheat flour. But mostly they are awful and, frankly, not exactly good for you. So, my idea is to provide a resource for just avoiding the whole thing altogether by eating simple, fabulous foods in balanced healthy (mostly) meals that don’t include gluten or gluten substitutes.

If you’re interested, click over to Gluten Free, No Substitutes. I’ve got a couple of meals worth of fantastic recipes up and plan to post 2-4 new ones per week. My favorite so far is the most decadent (of course!), the Lemon Mousse with Red Currant Puree.

Let me know what you think!