Several of Mr. Troutbend's family are on gluten-free diets. The need for it arises from an allergy to gluten. The official name for it is celiac sprue.

Gluten is the protein in wheat flour, and other grains to a lesser degree. When flour is mixed with water, gluten develops, and it forms a net that stretches and traps air when the dough is baked, giving a soft baked item. It's possible to come up with reasonable facsimiles of baked goods without gluten, just requires more work, usually quite a bit more expense, and they often don't measure up.

Whenever we go to Mama and Daddy Troutbend's house, she's got some new gluten-free snack or baked good. "Taste it! Taste it!" she cries, "It doesn't taste gluten-free.!" Which generally translates to: It doesn't suck quite as bad as most of that cardboard-tasting crap she usually drags home from the health food store.

And then my cousin Jeanie decided she needed to be gluten-free. It can run in families, so there is a chance that Mr. Troutbend and I both might feel better if we went gluten-free. We don't feel lousy enough to take that step, but might some day.

I've often thought that more people would benefit from a gluten free diet than realize it and sometimes they accidentally are on one and feel better. For example, the Atkins diet, which stresses the avoidance of carbohydrates, would be very low in gluten. Maybe some of that weight loss has to do with their innards being in better condition to process food.

Following a gluten-free diet is not just a matter of avoiding regular bread and crackers, however: a lot of foods like ketchup and soy sauce can have wheat derivatives, so the allergy support groups have developed huge lists of what manufactured food products are acceptable. Gluten-frees also have to be careful of theoretically okay processed foods that might have been cross-contaminated by being made in factories that also make wheat products. An example of this is Cheerios. They are made from oats, but look on the box: General Mills does not guarantee it to be gluten-free.

I know, by now you are probably thinking that back in the good old days people didn't have all these weird allergies that have reached out to all of us in the form of no more peanuts on airplanes, for example.

Anyhow, every so often in a regular cookbook I'll come across a gluten-free recipe, and it jumps out because if it's in there, then the final product is something reasonably acceptable to the general public.

This recipe is from the Sunset Bread Cookbook. They say: "The wheatless bread called rieska is a traditional favorite in northern Finland and Lapland. It's best served freshly made, still hot, spread with butter." If you can't find barley flour at the supermarket, try a health food store, or online. Most supermarkets sell rye flour.

Rieska
2 cups barley flour or rye flour (can mixed half and half if desired)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup undiluted evaporated milk or light cream
2 tablespoons butter, melted

In a bowl combine the flour with the salt, sugar and baking powder. Stir in the milk or cream and the melted butter until a smooth dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a well-buttered cookie sheet, dust your hands lightly with some of the special flour, and pat the dough out to make a circle about 14 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Prick all over with a fork, and bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve immediately, cut in pie-shaped wedges and spread with plenty of butter. Makes 8 to 10 pieces.

The cookbook doesn't say anything about it, but I'm wondering if you let this cool down, you'd have something like those Rye Krisp crackers that resemble cardboard, but some people like them.