More Praise for Whole Food's Sandwich Bread

It makes an excellent grilled cheese sandwich!

Product Review: Mommy's Muffins

One of my favorite things about Whole Foods, aside from their fantastic selection of gluten-free products, is that every time I visit, I find something new. My most recent trip uncovered a line of gluten-free baked goods made by a company based in New Hampshire called Mommy's Muffins. All their products are handmade and include cookies, whoopie pies, pizza crust and, of course, muffins. I selected a package of the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins because I am a sucker for the combination of pumpkin and chocolate (really chocolate and just about anything). Usually GF products have to be toasted, but because these muffins looked so moist I decided to skip the toaster and was glad I did. These muffins are moist with a subtle pumpkin flavor and just the right amount of chocolate flavor. I look forward to trying more of Mommy's Muffins' products and I'm excited by the availability of their GF crust at Flatbread Company Restaurants!

SImple Substitution: Blueberry Crisp

Sometimes making a conventional recipe gluten-free is as easy as switching a GF ingredient for a non-GF ingredient. For this blueberry crisp, adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe, I simply made two subsitutions. Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-free Flour for the all purpose flour called for in the recipe and Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Rolled Oats for the oats in the recipe. Simple and delicious.

Blueberry Crisp

• 3 cups blueberries
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup GF All-Purpose flour
• 1/2 cup GF rolled oats
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Carefully clean the blueberries and spread evenly in your baking dish. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. Combine the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon and salt, use a fork to cut in the butter. Spread the topping evenly over the blueberries. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

It was a good thing . . . Gluten Free Pantry's Angel Food Cake Mix

The Gluten Free Pantry is always a safe bet for baking mixes, easy to follow and always delicious results. Sadly, they've stopped making one of my favorites: the Angel Food Cake mix. I'm crossing my fingers that they're coming out with something even better very soon, but I find it hard to imagine because this mix was SO good. Although denser than conventional angel food cake, the GFP mix had an otherwise pleasing texture and great taste. Totally worth the 20 minutes spent holding an electric beater. Even my brothers, gluten-free-phobes that they are, didn't complain about this cake (I think that means they liked it). So, I'm optimistic GFP has something even better in the works, but in the meantime I'm missing this great product.

Here the GFP Angel Food Cake is shown with lemon pudding frosting, a simple addition that always gets rave reviews.

Lemon Pudding Frosting

• 1 package lemon flavored instant pudding mix
  
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Beat with electric mixer on high for one minute and only one minute. Set aside for a few minutes to thicken. Frost cake.

Naturally GF: Lobster

It's Maine, it's summer and that means lobster. Luckily, lobster is 100% gluten-free and 100% delicious. I like to enjoy my lobster at home because, let's face it, it's messy and it's just more fun if you're at your own table and can embrace the messiness. Besides, those bibs are never flattering on adults. And, of course, lobster should also be washed down with a beer- Red Bridge is a passable GF option.

And it turns out, cats also enjoy lobster (and being completely spoiled by my mother).

More Anello's Gluten Free Cafe

I really, really love this place! Last week a very important occasion (Sarah's 30th birthday!) brought me back to Portsmouth for surprise party activities. It was a perfect excuse to return to Anello's for a full GF lunch. My non-celiac pal, Marla, gamely accompanied me and although we had a limited amount of time, we had a fabulous lunch. First of all, everyone at Anello's is super-friendly and happy to answer questions. Since I'd been looking forward to this visit for about a week, I had my order ready- the turkey rueben. I haven't had anything at Anello's I didn't like, but I was especially impressed by their bread. I ordered the multi-grain and it was delicious! A great texture, a little moist (so rare in GF bread) and had a slightly nutty flavor. Marla also complimented the white bread she ordered with her chicken salad. For dessert: cannolis. Exactly the way I remember them. Great food, great company - all in all, a perfect lunch.

My lunch: turkey Reuben

Marla's chicken salad


Cannoli for dessert!

Product Review: Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse and Jones Dairy Farm

As I've said before, Whole Foods is a wonderful, magical place and a large part of that magic is their Gluten-Free Bakehouse line of products. The product selection is vast, from sandwich bread to pies and muffins. I've never tried anything from the GF Bakehouse that I didn't really like. In fact, many of my favorite GF products come from Whole Foods- I really, really like their Almond Scones and their Sandwich Bread is hands down another favorite.

More recently I've discovered Jones Dairy Farm and their GFCO certified sausage, bacon and other products. They produce over 50 GF certified products available in store and online (their website lists all the GF products). I was surprised, but I really enjoyed the sausage and rice links. And although these are gluten-free, my brothers eat them without complaining- high praise, indeed.

Above, I've combined the two for a yummy breakfast of poached egg on toast with sausage.