People ask me all the time, "I see it on all your labels, but what does celiabrate mean?" It's simple. Celiabrate is my philosophy on gluten-free living. Celebrating the gluten free lifestyle in spite of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity by refusing to ever sacrifice flavor, texture or aroma.
All through my childhood I struggled with discomfort and unpleasant symptoms after eating or drinking certain foods or beverages. Doctor after doctor told me nothing was wrong, and that my symptoms were normal. But I knew better. Finally a doctor told me to try cutting gluten out of my diet, and suddenly my whole world changed! But that change didn't always feel like a blessing. At first I struggled with the prospect of never being able to eat many of my favorite foods again unless I was willing to deal with everything unpleasant that came along with doing so...and that was a lot of pretty negative stuff.
Undaunted, I challenged myself not to let my new situation get me down and to turn it into a positive. My first target was treats, and that's how KristAnn's was born. I tried option after option from the grocery store to, shall we say, unsatisfying results. Claim after claim that they were "almost" as good as the "real thing" was proven out by my senses to be far from the truth. But I was armed with the celiabrate mindset, so I set out to make things right. I developed a series of recipes for sweet treats that truly do taste, feel and smell like the "real thing" because they are the real thing: I always use only truly premium ingredients and never make substitutions with anything "exotic" like you'll find in the ingredient lists for most other gluten-free treats. In short, I don't just bake gluten-free, I live it!™ But don't just take my word for it, order one of my treats or come see me at the Kensington Farmers' Market for a free sample and see for yourself.