If you haven't checked out Tom's article on Atypical Celiac disease, you should pop over and give it a read. I thought it was pretty amazing that non-secretors are 200% more likely to get celiac disease. Also interesting was the IgA antibody information. My blood tests were negative for all but IgG antibodies, though I was mostly gluten-free when I was tested. Perhaps I have a little IgA insufficiency. Man, I wish my sibling's doctors would read up on that. I was so lucky to have a doctor who listened to my symptoms, and combined with the lab results, that was enough for a diagnosis. Hey, 3 doctors have considered it enough now...pretty cool. I am very adament when they review the case though "anything with any gluten in it gives me diarrhea, end of story, if that's not celiac disease, what is?" If a doc had done a biopsy on my, and it had been negative, I would have considered it a false negative anyway, so what was the point. Biopsies are no fun. Of course, gluten didn't give me diarrhea until I started doing elimination/challenge diets with it. I was constipated and overweight, with a slight magnesium deficiency, that was it. Once again, I am atypical.

I hope to get my subtype testing done at the conference, since there are no facilities for it around here. I'll take bets...Here's my bet, I'm probably an MM, and wouldn't be surprised if I'm Lewis Double Negative. I guess I'm a pessimist about it. Maybe most of my early health problems could be blamed on celiac disease, but maybe I'm more genetically challenged than that.

Oh, food discoveries this week: Hollandaise sauce! I made it for the first time. I'll have to keep that to a minimum, but it's soooo good. Just whisk up 3 egg yolks with a teaspoon of lemon juice, then add half a cube of cold hard butter and put it on low low heat. Keep whisking it, and lift the pan off the burner a bit if it looks like it may curdle. Whisk whisk whisk until the butter melts, then add the other half of the cube of butter and keep whisking on low heat until that butter melts and the whole thing thickens. Soooo good.

Also discovered some wheat-free gluten-free tortillas...I think they're corn free too, but not avoid free as they have some binders like xanthan gum and tapioca flour. Secretors could probably get away with these from time to time...I bought some just to support their manufacture...yeah right. anyway, they tear and break fairly easily, but if you spray them with oil and heat them in a skillet for a bit, they work pretty well.

At the potluck on Sunday, the main dish was pulled barbecue beef with buns. Of course I couldn't have the bun, and I couldn't have the beef either because the sauce was commercial who knows what. It looked so good though that I went out and bought a flank steak, then simmered it with a quarted onion and bay leaf for 2-3 hour until tender. Put it in the fridge and shredded it up the next day. Today I made some semi-successful bbq sauce. I put too much cherry juice in it, but it worked out ok. Cherry juice, tomato paste, cherry preserves (compliant, such as St. Dalfour's), a little molasses, some red pepper flakes, sesame oil, thyme and a touch of cloves. I think pineapple juice would have been better for some of that cherry juice. I didn't have the measurements right, or I'd include them, just do it to taste, I did a little bit of everything, but too much cherry. Then I also put some of the beef, sans bbq sauce into one of those thar tortillas, with chopped tomatoes, chopped serrano peppers, pinto beans, and salsa, smothered it in salsa verde and baked up an enchilada...I had come within a millimeter of buying an Amy's frozen enchilada dinner, so this was a slightly better choice There's a brand of salsa in the Mexican foods section, I think it's Ronzon or something like that. It has no vinegar or avoids. Very good too.