Going Gluten-Free was something I had to do for health reasons. It has been a journey that has led me to develop a whole new way of cooking and baking.
As Gluten-Free Trina, I started out like so many others, just messing about in my kitchen trying to feed my family. Then I created a system of gluten-free flour mixes to save time.
After selling mixes all over North America, I retired from the food industry.
I hope you enjoy this blog about my gluten-free experiences, information gained over many years, and some recipes.
In my Cookbook, GLUTEN-FREE, YOU CAN DO IT! you will find Ingredient Charts for Gluten-Free Flour and Bread Mixes that consider the multiple food sensitivities that some people have in addition to gluten.
Four flour blends and three bread mixes with plain and whole-grain options. Make one mix or the whole series that is right for your diet. Each mix makes multiple recipes, with over 300 in the book.
Series A – 7 Original Mixes
Series B – 7 Corn and Nightshade Free Mixes
Series C – 7 Corn and Tapioca Free Mixes
All Mixes are Free-From: Tree-Nuts, Peanuts, Bean, Soy, Dairy, Sesame, and Pea
4 Rice-Free Mixes in each Series
Eight Recipe Chapters, including over 300 Recipes
Read more information about the Cookbook
Buy it Now...
Buy it Now.
A Little About My Gluten-Free Journey
I am fortunate that while growing up, I was allowed to make many a mess in the kitchen! Then I was mentored and exposed to all the many great cooks in my family; each taught me some of their secrets and how to make things taste good.
Trina
I did not learn to cook or bake gluten-free until I grew up. Through some quirk of fate, I could no longer eat all the things I had learned how to make. I had spent years trying to master the technique of making Austrian Apple Strudel. I also grew up on Southern Biscuits and Gravy in Oklahoma and North Carolina—an inheritance from our Scottish ancestors who perfected scone-making. I developed a taste for Mexican Flour Tortillas in Texas and California, and I love all the ‘foodie’ things from my Pennsylvania Dutch side of the family.
So not one to give up, I determined to make many messes in my kitchen and figure out some recipes I would be proud to serve my family and guests and eat myself. I have inherited a very fine palate from one side of my family. They were Irish ‘tea tasters’ and later became chocolate makers extraordinaire. I firmly believe in making our own way and picking all the best qualities of our family and environment. Just like baking, take a pinch of this and a spoonful of that, and love the places where you’ve been planted.
How I Started Creating Gluten-Free Flour Mixes
Going Gluten-Free was one of the biggest challenges in my life. Finding out I would have to give up eating wheat and gluten FOREVER! was similar to others in these circumstances. It is not easy to take. I would have to learn how to cook and bake for my family all over again.
My life back then was just like many other working women, trying to balance being a wife and mother and caring for my parents. Our family fell into the “Sandwich Generation” and somehow made it all work with a career. I have been fortunate in that I have mostly been self-employed. This brings a great deal of freedom to a creative spirit such as mine and challenges me to come up with new solutions from time to time. Things are easier in some ways now that we are grandparents, but cooking and baking will always be part of my life.
In trying to balance home, family, and work, I developed gluten-free flour and bread mixes that would save me time in the kitchen. I discovered that just as there are varieties of wheat flour, such as ‘white,’ ‘brown,’ ‘pastry,’ or ‘all-purpose’; each has different baking functionality. To a much greater degree, Gluten-Free flour and Starches perform very differently in recipes. One combination will create a light and fluffy cake; another will produce a brick-like mess you can hardly call a cake! It was through trial and error that I found combinations that worked. I started writing cookbooks under the name “Gluten Free Trina.”
I wanted to share good recipes with others like ourselves. Back then, there was little available, and store-bought bread and pizza, as a friend of mine said, “Could be lethal weapons.” They were so hard! I gave cooking lessons, talks, and classes at celiac meetings. People wanted a ready-made mix. So our family ventured out into the gluten-free flour mix business. We created a new name, Astoria Mills, and tried a succession of contract manufacturers to blend my formulas.
I made a lot of food flops!
Over a twenty-year period, juggling work and family out of the necessity to make eating easier for us, I did a lot of research, experimenting, and organizing. My family consisted of both celiac and some gluten-intolerant members. At first, the urgency of my finding and preparing tasty foods to eat was just for us.
Along the way, I developed a baking system of seven basic mixes to save time in the kitchen. Our family’s life and food also revolved around our social life. I started sharing foods at church suppers and social gatherings, and pretty soon, I had people begging me to make them gluten-free foods or give them the recipes. I gave a lot of recipes away, and then it got too much to manage all the requests.
I wanted a better way to share.
Originally I wrote some e-cookbooks as Gluten Free Trina. Then after a while, to make a long story short, our family went into the gluten-free flour mix industry with a succession of state-of-the-art contract manufacturers. We had a great product that worked, tasted good, and sold all over North America. Together we engaged in trade shows, participated in taste tests0 and local TV appearances, baked with restaurant chefs, assisted some large commercial bakeries with their production, formulated some specialty gluten-free blends, and more. It was an exciting time.
Working with bakeries for gluten-free formulations.
Working on Gluten-Free with Gluten-Free Co-Pak – Thank you, Steve, for all the time we spent together testing recipes.
It was always a good experience to work with other commercial bakeries to help them with their gluten-free lines.
Gluten-Free experiences along the way…
Family is important, and on one occasion, I was asked to care for my sister-in-law, who had undergone surgery, in a remote village in Northern Quebec called Waskaganish. During the five weeks there, I was asked to create a gluten-free version of ‘Native Bannock’ Bread. This is a staple food for First Nations Peoples, especially during hunting season, since it can keep, but it is traditionally made with wheat flour. Some members of the population in Waskaganish we found are also gluten intolerant. I was asked to provide a taste test for the Cree Chief and his entourage -with rave results. It was an experience I’d never forget, and I was kindly introduced as the ‘Chef from New York.
Helping Restaurants Provide Gluten-Free Food for their Customers
Gluten-Free Bow Tie Pasta
I was asked if my fresh pasta recipe would make Bow-Tie pasta for a restaurant. It took some tweaking to get the pasta to go through a pasta machine. Making the pasta go with a restaurant Chef’s signature sauce was quite fun. The idea was to offer it to restaurant patrons in a blind taste test. These were regular wheat eaters as we, of course, could not experiment on those requiring gluten-free. The restaurant patrons taking part could not believe the pasta was gluten-free!
“After the taste test, the Chef was able to satisfy his other clients; after all, gluten-free patrons don’t usually dine alone!”
Schooner Fish and Chips
Another time I was asked to develop a gluten-free fish fry batter for a fish and chips restaurant. They licensed the recipe and are still using it today. They went from having a small dedicated home fryer to satisfying a few customers who came in with other family members for their Friday Fish Fry. Within a year, they graduated with a fully dedicated regular-size deep fryer and a separate station to handle gluten-free customers. They expanded their menu to include gluten-free, deep-fried battered chicken, cheese balls, and mini donuts, among other things. Some customers travel two and three hours to indulge, and I personally know of someone who came all the way from Minnesota. Be sure to visit Schooner Fish N’ Chips in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, next time you are nearby.
Druxy’s Deli, London Ontario
I was invited to bake and do a series of taste tests for Druxy’s Deli with some new franchise owners who are friends of mine. They tasted my baking and wanted to introduce some better gluten-free options to their menu. Costs are an issue, and so is prep time in a fast-paced Deli operation. They had a breakfast crowd, and the pancake formula I had for them worked perfectly. You can read more on this blog, ‘Have You Ever Been Frustrated With Gluten-Free Baking.’
Baking with Jax of Gluten-Free Ontario
In 2012, I was invited by Ontario Food Blogger Jax to come to her home and bake with her using my then-just-launched Astoria Mills Gluten Free Mixes.
We had a wonderful day together, and I can’t believe we baked so many things. Only possible with the flour Mixes all ready to go.
“I feel privileged. Trina of Astoria Mills came to MY kitchen for a whole day of baking! (Okay, it was my parents’ kitchen… mine is too small.) Trina has created a fantastic baking system comprised of 6 mixes that can make just about anything your heart desires. I got to meet Trina when I was in Buffalo back in September for Gluten Freedom Day, and we have formed a friendship and have kept in touch since. I was really excited to get started… and immediately asked if we could make croissants and donuts, two of the ‘gluten’ items that I have missed and just haven’t found suitable substitutes for yet.”
Jax of Gluten-Free Ontario Blog
Life, Career, Family, and how life can bring you full circle.
Thinking back, I rolled all the experience I had used in business; photography, writing, media, design …and being a creative problem solver into Astoria Mills Gluten Free—an eclectic career surfing one wave after another and enjoying the ride.
Coming Full Circle
It was a sad day when we could no longer sell Astoria Mills Baking Mixes to the general public. We still had a few licensing agreements with small commercial bakeries. Word out there was that there was so much available now anyway we were not needed. People had lots of choices. However, that has proved not entirely true. Yes, fortunately, there are many gluten-free choices out there now, lots of information, recipe books, and more knowledge to assure people who need a gluten-free diet can manage their diet very well.
Providing ready-made gluten-free flour mixes through Astoria Mills Ltd, and I was fortunate to have numerous commercial bakery customers. My formulas were a sort of trade secret, commercially blended in state-of-the-art dedicated facilities to supply the bakeries. The bakeries were not nationwide, but it was rewarding to feel I was contributing to these bakeries’ ability to service their local communities with delicious baked goods. The formulas consisting of four flour blends and two bread and pizza blends formed the basis for baking almost anything. The gluten-free world grew and became more price-competitive as large companies got into the act with their own commercially available blends. A few custom bakeries licensed the formulas for a specific period of time, so I could not share these formulas with the public.
I am now happy to share the formulas and knowledge I have gained since starting this gluten-free journey in 1990.
Blend Your Own Gluten-Free Flour Mixes and know they will work!
All of the original Astoria Mills gluten-free flours as the formulas are included in my Gluten-Free, You Can Do It cookbook! Plus, additional formulas for those who are also sensitive to other foods. See this article about my cookbook for more information.
The Original Astoria Mills Gluten-Free Mixes
The Cookbook has these and other variations to help those who are sensitive to more ingredients.
You dive into each wave life presents you with. You keep going; you try to see the best in each circumstance; you have FAITH. And eventually, you find that everything you’ve learned along the way comes back again.
Life Often Involves Career Changes
So another wave had washed ashore, and it was time to let go and dive into my next career adventure.
Executive Director at Lynde House Museum
Another love of mine is history. I got involved with a small museum, first serving on the board of directors and a committee to take the storefront museum into a historic house location. I later contracted as the Executive Director. I fundraised, applied for, and reported on grants, hired, mentored, and worked alongside staff and volunteers. A big part of the job was organizing and coordinating special events that involved food. I was responsible for managing food safety and providers and ensuring food accessibility standards were met for those with various dietary restrictions. Having a background in the food industry helped a lot.
How to Include People with Special Diets
You can read more about one of the events where some of my gluten-free recipes were used. Because of guest allergies, the menu was also Peanut and Tree Nut Free. The menu included Gluten Free and Vegan foods and traditional wheat-based items.
I loved my time at Lynde House Museum & Warren General Store, made many friends, stretched myself in new directions, and had many ‘historically hysterical’ laughs. Glad to hand things over to a new team.
In my personal life, I’d continued to take gluten-free foods and baking to church suppers and social gatherings. Recipe requests and information started up all over again. A following of previous Astoria Mills baking mix customers kept asking, or might I say begging! The over 53,000 followers on my Gluten-Free Facebook Page wanted more…
I realized that my flour mix formulas and recipes are different and still very much needed. A couple of the things people have commented on the most is that my gluten-free foods actually satisfy a need for really good traditional foods that people grew up loving, and most importantly, that they TASTE GOOD!
Sharing, Caring, and Helping You Re-Imagine Your Gluten-Free Life!
The journey continues…
Be Blessed, Be Happy, and Eat Well! – Gluten-Free, of course.
