GF Food Allergy Fest Ticket Giveaway!

I can't believe how stealthily time is creeping toward the Gluten Free Fest in San Diego. With only 3 1/2 weeks leftI think it's about time I book a hotel room and GIVE AWAY SOME TICKETS! Don't you? So here's the deal.

I have 2 full weekend tickets to Living Without Magazine's Gluten-Free Food Allergy Fest.
To enter, all you have to do is comment here or on my Facebook page. I will draw 2 winners at random on Sunday, April 13th, and announce the winners here and on FB. Winners will have one week to message me with their full names if it's not in their comment, and winners' tickets will be waiting for them at will call at the event.

Also check out:
My FB Page
Fest's FB Page
There's a list of speakers and classes on their FB page that you might want to check out.
Comment to win, cause I want to see you there!!!

Five Years a Celiac

Today is the 5 year anniversary of my life as a diagnosed Celiac. It’s also my birthday. It’s also MLK day, and like him, I have a dream, but it’s more about taste equality, and lack of a fear of crumbs, than basic human rights, so I must concede that he earned the day far more than I did. But as I said, it’s my birthday, so perhaps you’ll indulge my slightly less altruistic reminiscence?

Five years ago today, I had a lot of lasts: my last taste of normal pasta, my last, soft nibble of my favorite herbed bread from a local, Alaskan restaurant, my last bite of gluten filled cake, my last night of not worrying whether going to a restaurant was too much like playing Russian roulette. Of course I did end up terribly ill that night. Knowing we were testing for Celiac, I loaded up. I went on one last gluten binge, and I paid dearly for it. I was so sick I didn’t even want the cake by the time it came out. I bloated so acutely that I couldn’t even button my stretchy pants to leave the restaurant with dignity. I was only saved from complete humiliation by a very long shirt. 

Fast forward nearly 5 years to last Friday night. As part of a sort of early celebration we stopped off for dinner at Chili’s while we were out. All of you seasoned Celiacs probably can hear the death knoll already can’t you? Go out on a Friday night? When it’s so busy and kitchens are messiest? Yeah. A smart move it was not. When there was a wait to get in I should have taken it as a sign and turned right around. But did I??? Nope. I was starving. And I had talked with one of the managers of this location before and they had served my well since, though admittedly never at such a busy hour. So in I went, ordered the same dish I always do after confirming it was still on the GF list, requested that kitchen managers be alerted, etc. And just like 5 years before, I found my self in utter agony, desperately unbuttoning previously comfy pants upon which I had assumed the buttons were merely decorative because I had never needed to use them before.

That night was the worst reaction I have ever had in my life. I ended up in the ER before the next morning, having nearly fainted a couple of times from severe dehydration. It felt like a perfect storm of glutening meets horrendous food poisoning, though my trooper of a hubby ate the last half of my meal to be sure and didn’t so much as get gassy, so maybe gluten meets virus? Either that or they supercharge their gluten at Chili's. At any rate, 2-3 days later, I’m not yet tolerating solid foods. They're too painful. There likely won't be cake this year thanks to that, even one of my good, GF ones. (And I had soooo been craving a rum cake! I’m seriously pouting over here.) Instead of cake this year, I just get to dream.

The cake I'm dreaming of today.

Maybe my dream is about human rights, after all. I think it’s a pretty basic human right to expect to be able to eat without fearing for your immediate health, or life, as with anaphylactic reactions. So I’m dreaming of a world where restaurants only publish GF menus when they really have the knowledge, training, space and equipment to actually provide GF foods, whether they're busy or not. I’d vastly prefer 1 or 2 safe options to 15, any one of which might be the next to poison me (related rant here). I’m dreaming of a world safer than 20 ppm for stuff that’s labeled GF. I’m dreaming of better research into cross-reactive foods. I’m dreaming of future birthdays, when I’ll actually get to eat and enjoy the cake.

So maybe it’s not as lofty as MLK’s dream, but it’s mine. 

Haunted Celiacs in Salem

We travel a lot. The hubby travels for work almost constantly, and the monkeys (read, our children) and I tag along whenever we can as well as try to visit family here and there. A huge part of my joy, and terror, each time we land in a new spot is seeking out good gluten free food.

Recently we've spent time in Nantucket, Salem, and Phoenix and I have buckets of experiences to share! Let's start with my favorite place in Salem, The Howling Wolf.

While they don't have a dedicated fryer (don't fall for the whole chips are gluten free in the morning thing or that fried items are on the GF menu - it's still the same fryer) and you will have to ask that your food be handled specially, they were very accommodating and the kitchen was otherwise very knowledgable. Taking the time to double check on the safety of a few things there was well worth it though. The stuffed jalapeños were amazing. They stuff them with cheese and chorizo, then wrap them in bacon, which was a brilliant, gluten free way to finish them and added immensely to the flavor and an even greater crispness than the usual breading. The textural contrast of crisp bacon to the creamy cheese was delightful, like the truffle of appetizers. The spiciness seemed to vary from pepper to pepper, but some had an awesome bite, which made them even better. The house-made pico with, I think mango, that they were served with was also fresh, flavorful and thoroughly yummy. I actually fantasized for weeks about driving all the way back to Salem just for the jalapeños. Now I just fantasize about making some... Oooh, I should do that!

Back to the food. I wish I had taken pictures, but the meal was too good to stop and click in the middle. The Hubby and the Monkeys had tacos and quesadilla on corn tortillas, which were good, but they were nothing to the cheese enchiladas, which had no sauce. Weird right? I first thought I was getting jipped for being a Celiac, as usual. But then I took a bite. Brilliance! Just the right combination of cheeses were all they needed to make the dish divine.

In the end, I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone who can't do cheese, or anyone who's not comfortable working with the waitstaff to be sure you only get safe GF food. But for the rest of us? The food was wonderful, the meal memorable, the decor very fun, the location very close to all the sites, the pricing moderate, and they didn't poison me! Huzzah!

The rest of Salem was a little scary in October though, and it wasn't the witches…
Amber waves of grain are the real stuffs of my nightmares.