I’ve been away (from the blog) on my annual cleanse of no meat/dairy/caffeine/alcohol. Clean and refreshing? Yes. Inspiring of blog posts? Not quite. But I’m back on the wagon, which means my first stop was the dessert aisle.
I busted over to the Old Town Whole Foods in search of some new treasures. Wandering the frozen aisle in search of treats, I noticed some packages from Moondance Heavenly Desserts.
The Ohio-based company bakes gluten-free products that don’t hold back on the other goodness.
These little treats are stuffed with dairy, butter, and richness. [Read more →]
Tasting Table posted a list of some praise-worthy gluten-free beers today. I was glad to see that they didn’t stuff the list with those cloying ciders (Seriously: Have the bar managers who stock cider as the glutenless alternative actually tried it? They’re fine for some things, but no substitute for real beer.)
My favorite beer is the Green’s. The bottles are each a half-liter, so they take a bit of commitment (in appetite and wallet), but are totally worth it. [Read more →]
My inner 5-year-old freaked out last year when I realized that I couldn’t have a normal, store-bought birthday cake. I knew that there would be plenty of gluten-free cakes, but would they be suitable for my birthday? Let’s just say that the once-a-year issue of birthday cake led to more panics than losing beer, pasta, pizza, or anything else that I’d eaten on a daily basis.
So, let’s take a tour of the many opportunities this year to test the options (store-bought and homemade) available to the gluten-free.
Hint: My inner kid has a party hat on.
For this, my second gluten-free birthday, I outsourced the job, asking genius Josh Short at Buzz Bakery to design my cake. I gave him free license to bake whatever came to him with fingers crossed that I would get a real cake. Seriously, all I wanted was something good enough to eat as breakfast leftovers in following days. Home run. Short made me a gluten-free chocolate cake filled with Illy espresso buttercream and English toffee encased with chocolate buttercream. It looked and tasted like the ultimate cake. The toffee bits in the filling added a good crunch. Short works a lot with almond flour, creating brownies, cupcakes, and custom cakes to suit gluten-avoiders, so he knows the drill. [Read more →]
Teaism’s Salty Oat Cookie is something of a legend in D.C.
It’s an enigma of flavors, all wrapped together. It’s salty, sweet, soft, and thick. It looks like a healthy oat cake, but tastes like a sinful treat. And I haven’t had one in eons.
The Gluteneer ran a 10-miler over the weekend, so we treated him to some Salty Oat fuel the day before. Watching him savor that cookie had me wanting my own.
And as somebody incapable of ignoring sweet cravings, I had to have one.
Typical oats are not gluten-free, so look for decent ones online or in a health food store. I bought mine (Lara’s Rolled Oats) at Roots.
I don’t claim perfection, but it’s a fairly decent recreation of that beloved treat. I love oatmeal chocolate cookies, so I experimented with cranberries, chocolate chips, and plain. The chocolate were my favorites
Like any Washingtonian, I both love and hate the National Mall.
It’s a grand time-killer for a budget-strapped afternoon and a great way to unload visitors, but when it comes time to eat…..Well, I wouldn’t want to go down in history as the person in charge of creating that meal plan.
For years, we griped about flaccid hot dogs, flavorless pizza, and the Mcsandwiches at the Air and Space Museum. Now, gluten makes even the most palatable options inedible.
So thank god for Mitsitam. Even before I was diagnosed with a gluten allergy, this was a favorite place. The little cafeteria inside the National Museum of the American Indian offers several different stations representing food options for different regional Indian delicacies. [Read more →]
Denny’s debuted a commercial during the Super Bowl about a character named Nannerpuss*.
The premise was that nobody wanted a Nannerpuss because “isn’t it time for a serious breakfast?”
Well, Denny’s, what breakfast isn’t serious? Sure, there was that whole campaign about a breakfast of champions, but let’s face it. Breakfast is usually sleepy-eyed, wolfed down before work. I hardly think about what I’m eating as I try to plan my day, get dressed, and get working. It could be a sensible bowl of hot GF oatmeal, soggy cold cereal, occasionally a power bar on the run. It’s always serious, or at least seriously sad.
So my answer is no. I want Nannerpuss. Why? Because breakfast should be fun. Also, banana pancakes are a popular breakfast in Hawaii, where breakfast should be taken with a view of the ocean, and maybe a lei on, with the promise of laziness ahead of you, not work.
So, no Denny’s. It isn’t time for a real breakfast. It’s time for Nannerpuss. And a gluten-free Nannerpuss at that. And after months of singing the song, talking about Nannerpuss, and craving banana pancakes, here’s my Nannerpuss, made with love by the Gluteneer.
(We used Pamela’s Gluten-Free Pancake Mix, sticking banana slices into the batter once it was on the skillet so that the bananas didn’t brown.)
*Spelled phonetically, because I think the combo of Banana and Octopus would be more like Nana’r-pus.
I busted over to the Old Town Whole Foods in search of some new treasures. Wandering the frozen aisle in search of treats, I noticed some packages from Moondance Heavenly Desserts.
