Carol Fenster's life has always centered around wheat: her family relied on their wheat farm to put food on the table, she married into a wheat-farming family, and her father-in-law is a professor who's main area of expertise is, you guessed it, wheat.
But her perspective on wheat broadened to include the dark side of the grain when, in 1988, her family doctor diagnosed her with a gluten sensitivity. Her relief in finding the cause of her chronic sinusitis only lasted until she got home and found her cupboards full of food she couldn't eat. At that time, gluten-free lifestyles were unusual and there weren't any resources available to help her adjust to her new way of living. Instead, she spent years reinventing some of her favorite foods with recipes she would feel great eating.
Over the years, Carol started to meet other people who shared her special diet and came to realize that her hard-earned knowledge from her own experiences in the kitchen could help others. As someone who enjoys eating herself, she made it her mission to "help people eat" and began to share her gluten-free recipes.
I came across Carol Fenster's cookbooks while searching the web after I decided to adopt a gluten-free diet. Having over 20 years of experience in gluten-free cooking, Carol could certainly teach me a thing or two to help ease the transition. And after flipping through the first 50 pages of Gluten-Free 101: Easy, Basic Dishes Without Wheat 
Using a collection of recipes from Gluten-Free 101, Gluten-Free Quick & Easy: From Prep to Plate Without the Fuss, and 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes, a Naturally Savvy team member and I got cookin'. After creating a batch of Carol's Sorghum Blend (Carol's replacement for tradtional wheat flour), we were ready to begin. From gnocchi and breaded chicken, to French bread and apple spice cake, we served a feast to our team and nobody noticed the gluten was missing. The bread was just as light and airy as any other homemade bread, and the apple spice cake rose to perfection.
Carol was generous enough to send me several of her cookbooks, so I plan to try out many more of her fabulous recipes. From our test run alone it's clear that Carol Fenster's gluten-free cookbooks are worthy of the Naturally Savvy Seal of Approval. With these books in my kitchen, I can make gluten-free foods that anyone can enjoy.
Carol Fenster's cookbooks are available online at Amazon.com.
