Hello, fellow GFers!

I got a couple of comments on the Gluten Free reveal, so hello to you!  But best of all was Shannon pointing out that Moxie (new bakery on N. Market that I was feeling bitter about not being able to sample) sometimes has GF goodies.  I also hear tell that La Dolce Vita over on Carroll Creek does, too, and even sometimes has GF buns for their sandwiches.  Woo!  I’ve eaten at both Volt and Isabella’s with my new diagnosis and found it easy to dine.  At Volt I was getting the express menu, so I just asked for things w/o bread or croutons or what have you.  no trouble.

This weekend, I was near Berkeley Springs, WV with some friends and we went to Panorama at the Peak Restaurant.  First–the VIEW!  Holy moly.  I live on top of Braddock Mountain and I have a pretty nice view of the Middletown valley from my back porch, but it’s like a view of a brick wall compared to what you see from Panorama.  The menu at this time of year is about 90% local.  Entrees were in the 17-30 dollar range for dinner, but there were sandwiches earlier in the day that looked good.  It’s very cozy (the weather was cold and wet, so that fireplace was welcome) and seemed to be pretty popular.  GF items are clearly labeled, woo!  The food was very good.  Not Volt-good (or, honestly, Isabellas-good), and probably not worth the prices, but a nice treat nonetheless.  I was only feeding myself, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.  If I’d had my family along, I’d likely have…well, I”d have left when I saw the prices.  Can’t feed a family of 5 there.  I’d try it again if in the area and either alone or with my husband.

So, fellow shunners of the Evil Gluten–where else to you eat around town?  Not being able to eat Asian foods is KILLING me.  know of anyplace in the DC or B-more area that’s using tamari instead of soy sauce?

a new purpose…

Okay, hi, I’m back.  I’ve kind of wandered off and returned with a new purpose here.  I’ve been diagnosed as gluten intolerant and I’m having to adjust my diet.  As I’m mentioned, I loooove bread.  But apparently bread hates me.  A lot.  And it makes holes in my gut and makes me sick.  So a fie on bread.  I’ll spare you my new zealotry about gut health and the importance of gastrointestinal testing, but if you want to know more, drop me a line.

What that means here is that I’m going to be on the prowl for GF veggie places to eat and checking out a lot of products.  I know that the key to my health improving is to eliminate the vast majority of processed foods from my life.  I also know that I NEED some for convenience and sanity.  I was on the Eat To Live diet when I started this blog and it was, coincidentally, largely gluten free.  I felt really good on it, but my laziness and love of bread sent me back to the processed food.  Sure, they were the crunchy granola “clean” products from the Common Market and MOMs, but still.  As was pointed out in the very cool blog “Little House in the Suburbs,”  it’s better to eat a pesticide-ridden conventionally grown peach than to eat organic bunny crackers.  good to remember.

That said, I miss some of my convenience foods.  Pizza, for one.  Tonight we had home-made pizzas on Kinnikkinnick personal pizza crusts.  The family’s primary gluten-free bread-winner is out of town, so the 4-to-a-package size was perfect.  They were good!  Even the kids liked them.  The company makes GF donuts, too, so I kind of love them.

I like sausage on my pizza.  In the past, that was no problem as veggie sausage is easy to come by and pretty yummy.  It seems to be the easiest fake meat to make tasty.  I was mad for Field Roast’s Apple Sage sausage.  But of course they are wheat, wheat, wheat.  Gardenburger USED to make a GF sausage, but when Kelloggs bought them, they added wheaty evil.  Bastards.  So I tried making my own.

I used this recipe:

http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/entrees/breakfast-sausage.htm

I ended up mixing the spices and tomato paste into the bean and flour mixture, AND I used sorghum flour b/c I only had potato starch and not potato flour.  The texture is not at all sausagey.  It’s kind of…sawdusty.  But the taste is actually pretty close.  I crumbled some up on my pizza and while it didn’t give me the nuggets of chewy, it did give me the sausage taste.  I’ll mess around with the recipe, I think, see what I can come up with.

Meanwhile–any GF vegetarians out there with a great veggie sausage lead?  Leave it in the comments…