Apologies

I would like to apologize to anyone who was offended by my post about Comfort Food Cafe. I have removed the post out of consideration for them and others, but please know that my intent was never to harm them. My blog is sarcastic and snarky just as I mean for it to be. That obviously came off as very rude to some and I apologize for that. I was also trying to protect people who may think that they can trust in something that says gluten free and believe that whoever is serving it must know what they are doing. This is not always the case.

I never spoke rudely to anyone who worked there, I simply asked questions and let them know some things that would cross contaminate a dish. I have actually been there since and they seem a lot more educated on the process and how they are able to cook things and make sure they are gluten free. Obviously if you eat at any restaurant, unless they are completely GF, then you could potentially get sick. I just think it's very important for a place to be well educated before they represent something as gluten free. And I think Comfort Foods Cafe is a great place and does wonderful things for the community. So my apologies to anyone who was offended.

I'm back

Wow. I haven't written on here in almost a year. Time flies. Well, I am back and I'm going to try to blog more often. I have tried many new GF products in the last year and I will try to post some reviews of them and some new recipe ideas. Hopefully I can get the word out there and get a few more followers.

Grocery Outlet has gluten-free goodies

I was surprised to see quite a bit of gluten-free food when I popped in my local Grocery Outlet the other day. We found cookies, pretzels, cereal bars, and a few other snack items. And for way cheaper than you can get them anywhere else. So check it out if you have one in your neighborhood.

Chocolate raspberry trifle

Easter is upon us and this year I realized that I would have to bring dessert, if I wanted to eat dessert. I trust no-one with gluten free baking in a gluten filled kitchen. Here is a recipe for a GF trifle. Before you start, please make sure all of your ingredients are GF:

Chocolate raspberry trifle

1 pkg Pamela's chocolate cake mix (prepared)

2 pkgs (5.1oz) Jello vanilla pudding (prepared)

1 tub (8oz) Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)

2 pkgs (10oz) frozen raspberries

1/2 cup sugar

chocolate syrup

small container of fresh raspberries

Mash thawed, frozen raspberries with 1/2 cup sugar and let sit in fridge for a few hours. Prepare cake and cool. Cut cake into big bite-sized pieces. Prepare vanilla pudding as directed on package. Mix softened cream cheese together with both boxes of pudding.

(As a rule, my recipes are from memory. I do not claim to know the exact measurements I use. Use common sense and taste to add more or less of the ingredients I have used when you are layering. You may have some left over. That's okay, just eat it. :) When you are layering, be sure to spread everything to the edges so that you can see the layers through the sides of your bowl.

In a trifle dish or a tall, cylindrical bowl (preferably clear glass), put 1/3 of cut up cakein the bottom. Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Spread 1/3 of the raspberry mixture over cake. Spread 1/3 of the pudding mixture over raspberries. Repeat these steps for 3 layers. Top the last layer of pudding with fresh raspberries. Enjoy!

WOW cookies!

So we made a little trip to the WOW Baking Co. in Kent today. We picked up an order of generously donated cookies for my Celiac Disease Meetup group. The people there are great and gave us a bunch of cookies so that my whole group can try all of the flavors. BTW they have a new flavor. Oregon Oatmeal. Yeah....YUM. They are made with REAL gluten free oats. No faux oatmeal cookies there. And they have cranberries and apricots in them which makes them good for me, right? Right. :)

The little one was in heaven because they gave him a huge fresh baked cookie. I tried to finagle a few bites, but he couldn't spare much. I must say these are the best premade cookies you can buy, gluten free or not. Buy some now.

http://www.wowbaking.com/

Garlic Jims has GF pizza!

And it is so good. I have had trouble with pizza crusts at home. They weren't awful, but not great either. Well, I attended my first CD Meetup group last night and Garlic Jims donated 8 pizzas to our meeting. They are awesome. They brought all kinds of pizza and it was all fabulous. And very generous of them. The crust is thin obviously, but it's taste and texture were very "normal". They also give you the option of using feta cheese for those of you who don't eat casien....or those of you who just love feta. It is awesome that a chain restaurant, and especially a pizza place, has the social awareness to offer something like this. Way to go Garlic Jims!

http://www.garlicjims.com/

Great Harvest Bread

So I just found out that the Great Harvest Bread Company on South Hill has gluten-free bread and goodies. They only bake them on Wednesdays so that they are not baking regular bread at the same time I think. I got a loaf of fresh baked bread that is a nut and grain type bread. It is moist and sweet and most delicious. It is the only really tolerable bread I have found so far. I also picked up some cinnamon chip muffins. They are awesome. You really can't tell that you are eating GF. It turns out that a lady from my CD Meetup is great friends with the lady that owns that Great Harvest. And it is actually her bread recipe. I am so excited to have found a bread that I love. Apparently they bake different goodies from week to week because my friend said that last Wednesday she got a GF chocolate chip scone there. 3 cheers for Great Harvest!

http://www.greatharvest.com/