Over the weekend, I was flipping through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 wondering what recipe I might attempt when I checked out volume 2. The second volume is where Julia Child explains bread and pastry making. The first volume skips the whole bread thing, which is good for me, since I can’t eat bread like most people. However, bread and pastries that are gluten-free yet taste like they are made with flour are the holy grail of gluten-free cooking. Anyone who eats gluten-free wants that perfect roll, cake or flaky pastry on occasion–well, probably most of the time, since we can’t have them. I actually avoid walking past a bakery. The smell is too tempting.

As I’m reading, I realize that a marble pastry board is a must-have, so I do some careful research online. The prices can be outrageous for this seemly mundane item, afterall, we often walk on marble floors. Further research led me to shops that sell marble, glass and various other materials for beautiful walls and floors. There you can pick out your favorite color and size. The squares are thinner than the expensive marble boards that are sold through kitchen supply stores, but they are lighter. I learned that an inch thick piece of marble weighs around 100 lbs. My half-inch 18×18 version weighs around 15 pounds. Heavy enough, but still moveable. You may wonder if a marble slab is really necessary. I would never have thought so, until I lived here in California where the popular countertops are topographical white tiles with some sort of quarter inch thick black stuff between them. There is no way I’m rolling out dough on such a rough surface. There’s no way that I would get a smooth pie crust or rolled out cookie. The counter doesn’t clean very well, and the only reason I can pick up food off the counter and eat it now is because I have a steam cleaner. The tiles get rather gross, and no amount of cleaner or scrubbing gets them clean like steam.

On my excursion on Monday, I got a nice marble square for around $12 with tax. I saved $115 dollars compared to the marble pastry board offered at Williams-Sonoma. I even saved $5 plus shipping over the cheapest marble I found online.

Even Spencer can’t resist the marble board or the camera. I will have to clean it well before I use it.