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Gauen offers healthy alternatives

Doug Flanagan/Post-Register
Oct. 08, 2009

Susan Gauen will hold a book-signing event at Akins Harvest Foods on Saturday.

A couple of years ago, Susan Gauen was visiting a friend in Hood River, Ore., who explained to Gauen that eating good, healthy food was a challenge because of various allergies, including an aversion to gluten.

“The diagnosis devastated her,” Gauen said. “She basically quit eating.”

Moved with her friend’s plight, Gauen, a lifelong lover of food and cooking, spent a solid week cooking various dishes, experimenting with certain combinations to substitute ingredients and remove certain other chemicals that her friend was allergic to.

Her work was met with resounding approval; soon after, Gauen’s friend said she should write a cookbook filled with her alternative recipes.

Over the next year, that’s exactly what Gauen did, and as a result she’s now a published author.

Her book, Celebrating Food: 121 Gluten-Free Recipes for a Healthier You, is geared for those who are allergic to gluten. But the recipes also have options so that food may be prepared free of dairy, eggs, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, corn and food-dyes.

There are photos of each recipe, so the cook can see the finished product before they begin. If a person needs to make allergy-friendly beverages, breakfast foods, breads, cakes, cookies, bars, scones, muffins, candy, main dishes, pies, puddings, salads, salad dressings, soups, sandwiches, vegetables, or potato, rice, or pasta side dishes, the 160-page cookbook has many options available.

“I wanted to make a Betty Crocker-type cookbook that has every topic you’re looking for, every kind of food, and lots of pictures,” Gauen said.

Gauen’s book actually includes 122 recipes (she snuck one in at the last second after the title was published), and she said she has about 30 to 40 additional recipes that weren’t published.

“It took a lot of trial and error (to come up with the recipes),” she said. “It was a substantial amount of work. All I did was cook. It was a full-time job cooking and photographing. I just started with my own personal recipes and tried to alter them in some way or substitute ingredients.”

Gauen received her advance copies of the book, published by Creation House Publishing, in early September and was thrilled with the final results.

“I couldn’t really picture what it would look like, but it turned out great,” she said. “They packed so much information and pictures into the pages. I was amazed when I first saw it.”

Gauen said she takes a certain amount of pride from helping to educate people who have certain food allergies that they can enjoy just about any culinary creation they could imagine with a few simple alterations.

If somebody is allergic to gluten, it basically means that he or she has to stay away from any foods with flour.

“I’m happy that I can do it,” she said. “It’s rewarding to help people enjoy food again that’s homemade and not from a box. It was a shock to me to find out that a lot of people who have these allergies don’t really know anything about what they could be eating. I almost think that when people are diagnosed with these allergies that they need to attend a class to find out what they can do.”

Gauen recently moved to Quincy from Kennewick, but is generally nomadic in nature; since 1977, she has been a full-time missionary in Youth With A Mission, and has been to over 35 countries.

She was born in Montana, and was raised in a household that embraced a cooking culture.

“My mom had me cooking when I was a little kid,” she said. “As soon as I could see over the counter I started making cookies, and when I was 8 or 9 years old I started making dinners. My mom was a great cook. We always had amazing food, and everything was homemade. We had a garden and everything was fresh. I love the homemade flavor.”

Gauen will hold a book-signing event at Akins Harvest Foods on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A similar function will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Quincy Library from 3 to 5 p.m.

Gauen is a soft-spoken individual who would normally like to shun any spotlight, but if her book takes off, she might have to get used to a certain amount of celebrity attention; in fact, she’s already planning on writing a second book.

“Everyone tells me what a beautiful book it is, and they really like the pictures of each recipe,” she said. “I want my book to get into the hands of the people who need it. People with multiple food allergies will find that they can eat a lot of their old favorites, without the taste or texture being compromised in the slightest.”