Traveling to the Great Gluten Free Spaceship in the Sky.

Well, it has been a spell since I posted. Been on a GF coma cruise. Have you heard about the above campaign? They want us to talk about this important stuff at Thanksgiving: “Hey pass the Gluten Free stuffing and have you considered where you want to die?”

I love the idea. What better time could there be to talk about stuff that most people don’t want to talk about on a day that is absolutely a powderkeg of potential familial smolderings with cranberry on top, is it Gluten Free?

For the Gluten Free Riders this campaign would make more sense around Halloween. Dont’ ya think? Like, good old Samhain is all about talkin’ with the departed and such whilst powered by a sugar high. Muuuch better death-talkin’ climate, I’m just sayin’….but don’t let me stop you from tryin’ to broach this subject whilst you are re-explaining why you won’t be eating the pumpkin pie nor the haggis.

Here is a place where you can get your bits in order before you slip into that tryptophan stupor.

Jimmy My Ice Cream

That’s what they call sprinkles or chocolatey topping bits around the Boston area and other parts of New England: Jimmies.

You can’t count on all Jimmies being GF, I have come across ones that use wheat as an ingredient.

Though I have heard more than a few people say the Jimmies are made of wax, I have never seen one that actually contained wax…

These ones are made in Germany. I paid something crazy like $2.10 at a local supermarket’s “health” aisle for an ounce. Thats about enough for a couple of dishes of ice cream, where I come from…

Their consistency is a bit “crunchier” than your average jimmy, found at your average ice cream parlor. They have more of a cocoa taste than other jimmies. And as far as size goes these jimmies are quite thin but a few millimeters up from a dimension that I would regard as hairy (and yes I have had hairy jimmies (they don’t tickle a bit) and they are quite appealing as they melt as opposed to crunch or squish as do some of the too big jimmies).

I want Ice Cream, now.

Pad Thai Life

Pad Thai is the most delicious “anytime” food. I can, will and do it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you have never had it it is like you have never been awake for the sunrise, or something. Traditionally served in the West you can count on it containing rice noodle, egg, peanuts and a melody of other ingredients sounding often like scallion/onion, chili paste, oil and perhaps tofu. Chicken and shrimp are common ingredients but vegetarian is also great. It is best with fresh springy bean sprouts not of the green kind.

There is at least one frozen GF Pad Thai on the market made by Tandoor Chef. The box looks similar to the right but it actually is marked as gluten-free and I agree after having consumed manyMany boxes over the years.

Of course Pad Thai is best made fresh. Good luck on making it as I believe their is a secret potion/incantation or club you have to belong to to make it well…

You’ll find it at any Thai restaurant and I can’t recall once having ordered Pad Thai and found it disagreeable as far as being GF. Your mileage will vary. I find that fresh lime really heightens the dish…

Oh ya. If you are going to a Thai restaurant ask for mango and sticky rice for dessert. Oh my. If they know what you are talking about and the mango is in season and they know how to make it with coconut milk…. Wow. What a great dessert/meal…

8te: Whipped Cream

A squirt on waffles

Another squirt on pancakes

Oh, and a spot on the black coffee

How about a dollop on my GF finger

Now, I agree that fresh made whipped cream is the best but I’m just sayin’ that a can of whipped cream will transform a GF meal, snack or drink quickly, sonicaly and happily. It’s rocket science!

HolyCud: Food Exploration and Childhood Imprinting…

Here is a great article  not just for parents and not just about mistakes, as the title and tilt may lead you to believe…. It has really great advice and grounded ways of navigating the GF eating world too.

Think of your GF trip as though you are the kids they talk about in the article and then maybe you can rejigger your GF path into something more diverse….Anyway that is what I try and do…. The GF Food constellation is for exploring…

CookieFed Mouses

We really like tooling around on this Federation Item. We got one in the mail yesterday and it looks as good as this picture. Hop on over to our new store and check out the Bling…

Trader Joe’s Has GF Cargo

A couple of days ago I posted about Trader’s GF pancakes but maybe you are not familiar with Trader Joe’s? There are a number of locations in my neck of the woods. You may have to take a drive to one near you but it would be worth it if you are looking for lots of GF frozen and other foods. We regularly by lots of their stuff and toss it in the Federation deep freeze…

Here is their map of locations and such.

And here be their extensive list of No Gluten Product.

HolyCud: Thinking Out Loud About Free Food

So I have received my first inquiry to receive some food from a GF maker.

The understanding is that I will review the stuff. 

And I am wonderin’, actually I have been wonderin’ this for a while, if I want to open that door, go down that road, take that trip, eat that chowder….

Free Food! What are you crazy? Take it and eat it, now. Free Food. Don’t review it if you don’t really like it…

These are some of the comments in my head and about my head in regards to the practice of taking free food then reviewing it on this blog.

In the past I did some time in an industry that was heavily oiled by similar giveaways: radio. Back in the day records would be “given” to stations and if we liked the taste of it we played it. Depending upon the station and formatting some, most or all the material played would be freely given to the stations by records companies or artists…

I guess the bottom line is that if you are going to get stuff for free it is going to cost one way or another…

What do you think? Have any GF related experience with this issue?

8te: Trader Joe’s Pancakes

I enjoy these Gluten Free frozen pancakes a lot. I could eat them by the box load. It seems others enjoy too as it is hard to get a hold of ‘em. They seem to sell out tre quick.

Right, I find that the best way to cook em is zap em for the recommended amount then put them in the toaster oven thing. They are real fleshy out of the mic. so there isn’t much chance of ‘em standing up in a vertical toaster…

SillyCeliactics_5: GlutenFreeFriendsTasteGood

“Oh! I didn’t know we have gluten free pizza here,” the teenager says as she rings up the George’s pizza.

“Yup,” he says watching the six dollar 8″ pie ring up on the register screen.

“I have a few friends who are Gluten Free….I mean they try and….Celiac’s. They are Celiacs….I don’t know why I just called them Gluten Free. Gluten Free. Celiac,” she says as she processes the card.

“They try and be Gluten Free,” he says in agreement and understanding whilst thinking maybe she would like to eat her delicious Gluten Free friends.

“Yah, that’s right….they are Celiac…tic. Celiac Disease.”