Wham Bam Thank You "Plan"

Last weekend we took our niece into The City to see the tree at Rockerfeller Center.  Since we moved to PA we don't frequent NYC as often as we used to, and aren't up-to-date with local hot spots and eateries. So what do you do if you follow a Gluten Free lifestyle and need to eat out in an unfamiliar area?

Prepare, Locate, And Nourish 

(yes, I just came up with that)

Before we even looked up train schedules, we scoured the internet for gluten free and GF friendly restaurants, around the Mid-Town area.

Our tools:
Yelp, Menu Pages, and a little known gem of an app: "Find Me Gluten Free"

We narrowed the choices down to a few restaurants, but left the final decision making till the day of, since we weren't quite sure what time we would all want to eat and where we would be when the hunger pangs struck.

On the day of trip we wound up at St Patrick's Cathedral when we decided that it was time to stuff our faces. I could have panicked, but thanks to our PLANing we were able to quickly decide upon a Gluten Free restaurant nearby.

Find Me Gluten Free led us to Lili's 57 (conveniently located on W 57th street in Manhattan.) They had a separate gluten free menu and were knowledgeable about Gluten Free practices.
We ordered the GF Pork Dumplings, the GF Chicken/Shrimp Pad Thai and the GF Cranberry Teriyaki Grilled Chicken.

GF Cranberry Teriyaki Grilled Chicken w/ Brown Rice

Mom and Dad ordered the regular Pad Thai dish and after tasting our GF version proclaimed that it was hard to tell the difference. Everyone loved the GF Dumplings, especially our niece. The hardest part of our dining experience was reminding my brother-in-law to use separate utensils when tasting our GF food as to not cross-contaminate.

We highly recommend both the Find Me Gluten Free app and Lili's 57.

FOOD! Yeah... BumBumBum... What are we thankful for?

In the continuation of our holiday series, the next holiday on our list was Thanksgiving or as it just so happened this year "Thanksgivukkah." (Thanksgivukkah is when Thanksgiving aligns with the first day of Hanukah, which doesn't happen to often.) This holiday is major carb overload to begin with and most of the traditional foods attributed to Thanksgiving have hidden gluten in them. Since we celebrated with my (Mary's) family this year, the pressure was on for them to accommodate our new life style. And like most things, the "Tops" rose to the occasion.

I asked Mama and Papa Top to be guest bloggers on the site but they declined for now (don't be surprised if you see a Mama and Papa Top's corner on our page in the near future.) They did, however, provide a few  of their recipes and shared with us how they kept gluten away from our meal in which we give thanks.

At first I thought the only thing safe to eat would be the turkey (I would be highly concerned if you are slathering some wheat filled product on your turkey in the first place.) Just as I suspected my mom gave the turkey a relaxing massage with some olive oil and seasoned it with Adobo and paprika. Score! My parents ended up surpassing all my expectations and found every alternative to make sure we had the same Thanksgiving meal as always.

I'm Stuffed

The biggest obstacle that my family had to face was making my favorite Turkey Day staple GF. Stuffing!!! (or like some people call it, dressing.) It literally is made from bread and before I went gluten free it was something that I ate on a pretty regular basis just because I love it so much. My family is far from fancy so we usually just make Stove Top but they don't offer a gluten free version of it yet so my mom found the next best thing, Gillian's Foods Home Style Stuffing Mix.

GF Stuffing Recipe

1 box/bag Stuffing 

1 1/2 to 2 cups gluten free chicken stock

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chopped celery

Saute onions & celery together with butter until cooked translucent. Add eggs, chicken stock, and stuffing and mix all together until bread is moist.

My dad originally only used about a cup of chicken broth and in hind site says, he should have added more (I agree with him and we added some extra broth to our leftovers as well as a 1/4 cup of an Italian Cheese blend.) 

My family tried to be conscious of what ingredients went into our other side dishes and made sure they were all gluten free. I usually make gravy with the meat drippings, broth, and corn starch (even before going GF) and was shocked to find out this isn't how other people make gravy. I told my parents to just use corn starch but they opted to use gluten free pancake mix of all things to thicken the gravy and I must say it was quite delicious. 

We waited an hour or two to digest and see if we had any negative reactions after our meal but found that we were not "glutened" at all (despite my brother's careless utensil mixing.) With no side effects of a gluten contamination we moved onto what Hayley is most thankful for.... dessert.

DESSERT!

"The Farmer and Mi-Del"

My mother's theory on pies during thanksgiving is that there should be a 1 to 1 ratio, meaning one pie per one person. Without disappointment that is exactly how many pies we had  (9 in total, 4 gluten free, 5 laden with it.) Hayley did her part to contribute to the pie to person ratio by bringing a Sweet Potato Pie (her specialty) and a Pumpkin Pie using Grandma Kennedy's secret recipe (just read the side of a can of Libby's Pumpkin.) Both Hayley and my mom used Mi-Del's pre-made pie crusts for some of their pies. I really like the Chocolate Style crust but Hayley is on the if-y side. No holiday would be without my mom's Chocolate Mousse pie so she texted me a thousand times worked really hard to make sure she used the right ingredients. 

Chocolate Mousse Pie

Mama Top's Chocolate Mousse Pie

Mi-Del Gluten Free Chocolate Style pie shell 

6 oz Nestle semisweet chocolate bits (Hershey's could also be used, both are gluten free) 

2 Tablespoons Margarine -room temperature  

2 raw eggs 

1 small container lite Cool-Whip

Pinch of salt

Pour chocolate chips into a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 45 seconds, stir, and then continue for 15 seconds until all the chocolate is melted and smooth. 

Add a pinch of salt

Stir in margarine until melted and smooth and then add the raw eggs. Make sure to keep stirring so the eggs don't scramble. 

Fold container of Cool-Whip into the chocolate mixture. Once all is mixed, pour into pie shell and refrigerate. Serve with whip topping.

All in all, our first Gluten Free Thanksgivakkah went off with out a hitch and without being "Glutened." I would mark that as a success. Two holidays down, two more to go.

How my mom differentiates

Potato, Potahtoe, Lets just call the whole thing Latkes

When we decided to take the plunge and go Gluten Free there were many things we didn't consider (and food we wished we pigged out on before cutting it out of our life.) One main thing we never thought about was how we would we be able to enjoy the holidays without the foods we love. Luckily, there are some tasty alternatives on the market now that will help ease the pain of missing out on all that comfort food. We still have Christmas to tackle but Thanksgiving and Hanukah have been conquered.

Let's start off in the order in which we started the holiday season:

Hanukah! 

Gluten Free Latkes

We didn't have a big meal planned out to ring in the "Festival of Lights" but the most important thing we had to have was Latkes (Potato Pancakes to some.... I call them Yiddish Hash-browns... same thing.) Fried food is traditionally eaten on Hanukkah in commemoration of the oil that miraculously burned for eight days when the Maccabees purified and rededicated the holy Temple in Jerusalem. 

Our recipe:

4 large starchy baking potatoes grated

1 small sweet onion, grated

1/3 to 1/2 cup Gluten Free Matzo ground finely or 
all-purpose gluten-free flour blend, as needed

1 large organic free-range eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Dash of black pepper

Canola, or high heat oil, for frying

Peel and grate the potatoes and onion by hand (You need to put your blood, sweat, and tears into this, sometimes literally.)

Let the grated potato and onion mixture rest then press them into colander  to extract the moisture.

In a large bowl, combine the grated potatoes, onions and Gluten Free Matzo. Add the beaten egg, sea salt and pepper. Stir well. Add more flour as you go, if you need to.

Heat a good half inch of oil in a cast iron skillet over high heat.
Carefully drop the batter with a large spoon, or fork, into the hot oil, and press down with a spatula.
Cook the latkes until they are golden on each side - crispy on the outside, and tender in the middle. This takes maybe five minutes, depending upon the size of the latke.
Remove the latkes with a slotted spatula and place on paper towels, to drain.
Keep the drained latkes warm in a hot oven (200 degrees) until all the latkes are ready to serve. Try to work fast, as latkes are definitely best hot from the pan.
Serve the latkes immediately with applesauce or sour cream or Ketchup if you have a shiksa for a wife.

Hold Tight and "Steadfast"

Steadfast Beer Company

Steadfast Beer Co. is a Gluten-Free craft beer company founded in Albany, NY in 2011 (Lots of amazing things come from Albany, NY, like our favorite band "Sirsy". After making their debut in 2012 with the hoppiest Gluten-Free beer on the market, Steadfast Sorghum Pale Ale, company owners Mark Crisafulli and Jeremy Hosier have set enthusiastically on a path to create a collection of Gluten-Free beers for the true craft beer enthusiast. 

Steadfast uses only naturally gluten-free ingredients like rice, sorghum, honey, sugar cane, and tapioca in its beers. The company works closely with the owners of the breweries it contracts (Steadfast doesn't own its own facility) to ensure equipment is totally cleaned of gluten. Their Pale Ale and Golden Blonde Ale is available year round and the company is planning to add more brews to its portfolio. They just released the world's first gluten-free Pumpkin Spice Ale and is also testing out recipes for the world's first gluten-free oatmeal stout.  

I picked up the Blonde Ale yesterday when I went to Joe Canal's in the Princeton, NJ area. Their "certified beer guy" (who also happened to have quite possibly the most amazing beard I have ever seen) stated they had just got Steadfast in and had not had the opportunity to test it out. I figured I give it a shot.

Golden Blond Ale

Their Golden Blond Ale contains 5.5 % alcohol by volume. The body has a hazy, golden-pale almost yellow into a pint glass. Highly effervescent when poured, but eventually calms down to virtual tepidness. The smell is a light aroma of flowers, sorghum, and a hint of spice. Judging by the description and ingredients list, it seems this beer is intended to be the equivalent of a gluten-free witbier. Honey, coriander and orange peel create for a relatively familiar, summer seasonal-type palette. It’s not a beer I would describe as "spicy" though. The spices are enough to notice and taste, but mild enough that they don’t overwhelm. Same thing with the sorghum base. There’s a "twangy" flavor on the finish, but it’s mild and easily tolerable and you barely notice it after a while. The flavor is quite refreshing, and the thin, tepid body makes it highly drinkable, especially considering how smooth the finish is. 

Overall, this was definitely one of the more consumable Sorghum based beers I have had. However, I’m not going to say that it is the best so far. I am still in search for the “Holy Grail” of sorghum beers.