Instead of a boring list of what does and doesn’t have gluten, and why you should care, here is a fun article for the Day After Celiac Awareness Day:

Gluten-free Celebrities

1. Rachel Weisz – didn’t even know who this was until I googled her. Apparently she was in a lot of movies and married Daniel Craig.

2. Elisabeth Hasselbeck – LOVE her. She’s on The View and wrote an amazing g-free diet book that I highly recommend to anyone, even non-Celiacs (see the lovely quote from the book below.)

3. Ryan Phillippe – hottie actor from my youth. Has he been in anything good recently?

4. Geri Halliwell – Ginger Spice, my 2nd favorite Spice Girl (Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, Baby – in that order).

5. Emmy Rossum – didn’t know who this was either, an actress who sings? She’s in the movie Dare, which just happens to be in my Netflix queue. Maybe I’ll watch it now.

6. Chelsea Clinton – daughter of the former president. She’s not that interesting, probably because she’s a vegan and that’s just weird.

7. Bill Clinton – former prez. He insulted my dad and Italians one time when my dad met him and chatted him up. Slightly more interesting than Chelsea.

8. Zooey Deschanel – LOVE her. Can’t wait for the new series New Girl to start on TV this fall. I loved her mostly in Elf, Weeds and Failure to Launch.

Each meal left me bloated and gassy, with  sharp, explosive pains in my abdomen. No matter what I ate, I would soon be doubled over with cramps, awful indigestion, diarrhea – or all of the above simultaneously. I soon became all too familiar with the location of any and all bathrooms.

-The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, page 5

Celiac Awareness ribbon

I didn’t know the Celiac awareness color was light green when I made this blog. How fitting.

It’s a regular favorite for my husband and me.

Until Joey’s, the Hubs didn’t even like fish and now their fish fry is “the best” and the only one he will eat (without complaining the whole night, that is). That’s fine for me because there are so many things I can have!

My usual dish is the pound of crab legs because it’s affordable and amazing. I’ve also had their shrimp and scallops – both were of excellent quality which I didn’t expect for such a casual restaurant. G-free safe cooking styles for the shrimp and scallops that I’ve had so far have been “blackened” and “sauteed Cajun” – both I would highly recommend (but stay away from the Cajun if you don’t like spicy!). Safe sides I’ve had were the french fries, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. Since I love all three, I rarely venture from those, but someday I’ll see what else they have.

MMMmmmm... butter.

The place is usually empty except for Friday and Saturday nights, the service is as wonderful as the food and they took the time to answer my questions about gluten free seasoning and options. The servers I’ve had were surprisingly willing to substitute glutenous foods for safe options in those “combo” dishes that usually come with an attitude when you want something not listed.

If you have a Joey’s Seafood & Grill near you, try them! See if it’s the best fish fry… and if it isn’t, you didn’t have to spend too much to find out.

MMmmmm... crab legs.

G-Free Grade = A

I recently found out some great news: Penzey’s Spices (one of my all-time favorite local stores) is 98% gluten free*!!

They have a spice for everything: dips, salsas, every meat and vegetable, baking, grilling… you name it. I usually just check the back of everything I want and then buy it if it looks safe. I don’t have to do that anymore. I didn’t want to trust the rumor, so I emailed Penzey’s and got an immediate response about their products when I asked which 1-2 items were not gluten free.

Ingredients are clearly listed for our spice blends. Some ingredients used in blending that contain possible allergens include, Soy protein, lactose and dehydrated cheese. Soy protein is used in Chip & Dip Seasoning, lactose is used in Taco seasoning and the dehydrated cheeses are used in our line of Cheese Seasoning Blends. A meticulous clean up is performed after production of these items. Penzeys soup bases are produced at another facility and are known to contain allergens. Penzeys Spices no longer sells MSG and does not use it in blending. All other items are free of common allergens.

The email was much longer but I was really happy with the response time and detailed answer. I love Penzey’s and if you don’t have one near you, consider buying from them online!

My favorites: Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle (amazing on popcorn) and Fox Point Seasoning (amazing on steamed veggies).

And, while looking up those links, I saw some amazing recipes on the website that will likely be showing up here.

found this on someone's blog... penzey's + kitten = amazing

Starting September 11/ending December 20/101 days/14.5 weeks

I’m mostly looking for new things to write about, so hopefully getting in the habit of checking things off a list will get me into a goal-oriented mindset that will carry over into my writing regularly.

I think this weird mentality/lack of motivation started when I graduated college… I didn’t have academic deadlines to keep me accountable for getting my work done. Now that my work is voluntary (writing, not my actual jobs which are NOT voluntary) I have nothing holding me to it. I still don’t, but lists are more fun than just saying “I must find recipes to write about.”

I think the hardest things on the list will be to keep a personal journal because I’m terrible at doing things regularly and working out because I hate it. The easiest will probably be to read books by new authors and find new gluten free blogs to follow.

The OED (and any dictionary, really) is always adding new words and often no one (but weird English majors) bothers to pay attention. This time, people are paying attention. The Huffington Post had a great article  about the new words being added and even more interesting are the comments on the article.

People HATE new words and they hate their inclusion into the dictionary even more. I will always find that amusing because people use new/slang/improper words every day but they still maintain that these “fads” are ruining the English language. If it weren’t for fads, we would all be speaking Old English.

One of the best complaint comments was about how someone in the future will look back on our society and see that we included “sexting” in the dictionary and they will have a “WTF” reaction. If you don’t see how that’s ironic, I’m not sure there’s hope for you. Also recently included in the OED are internet acronyms like “LOL” and “OMG.” I love English.

Three (of the 400) new words added to the Concise Oxford Dictionary (which I use all the time because it’s amazing):

Retweet
verb: (on the social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user)

Sexting
noun: the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone

Cyberbullying
noun: the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.

According to The Telegraph, “the new words were selected after being entered into a database of 2 billion words drawn from contemporary websites and texts to prove their ubiquity”.

The dictionary’s editor Angus Stevenson told Channel 4 News that “new words often reflect the era in which they were added to the dictionary,” and commented on the impact that social media and the Internet have had on language.

It’s worth noting that the term “retweet” was not widely used until 2008 (two years after Twitter was founded), when users began prepending their messages with “RT @username”. Now with more than 175 million users, Twitter terminology has become common language, and the Oxford University Press undoubtedly agrees.

Other new words added to the Concise Oxford Dictionary include “woot” (used to express enthusiasm in online communication) and “kinematograph” (an early film projector).

THIS JUST IN: OED *removes* words to make room for new ones! I love it. Discuss.

This year’s fair had deep-fried everything: candy bars, veggies, s’mores, cookies, butter, pies… and all could be eaten from a stick. I was jealous that my husband could eat whatever he wanted.

I was lucky because this year I tried Slim McGinn’s basket of homemade potato chips that may not have been labeled “gluten-free”, but they didn’t make me sick (quite a risk eating them, but I was hungry!). Of course, that wasn’t as wonderful as seeing Molly’s Gluten Free Bakery supplying Robert’s Restaurant with hamburger buns.

It was expensive, and the bread was dry (likely from leaving it out… I know how food booths work), but it was nice to eat a meal and know I wouldn’t get sick. Thanks for being awesome, Molly’s!

G-Free burger

G-Free Grade = B

cheesecake heaven in a cup!

This heavenly creation was probably one of the best tasting grocery-store (Whole Foods to be exact) cheesecakes I’ve ever had.

The crust is “pecan shortbread” and I think it’s more pecan than cookie. I normally don’t like pecans but the texture and flavor only made the creamy cheesecake better. The cheese filling is typical, I would say. Nothing extraordinary, but nonetheless delicious.

For someone who is a chocolate fanatic, I initially thought the light sprinkling of chocolate chips was a bit too scarce. However, everything (crust, cake, topping) was in perfect proportion.

This is an excellent dessert – high in calories and high in satisfaction. I would definitely try more flavors… maybe when I’m not on a diet.

Don’t go the website if you’re hungry.

G-Free Grade = A+

In other news: my scarf is coming along beautifully. I kind of wish I would have made something different. A hat maybe? I’m scared to try new shapes though…  Knit and Crochet Now! makes everything look so easy!

beautiful stitching

pouch on the couch

I used 2 yarns of the same thickness (worsted 4). The pattern is found on the Knit & Crochet Now! TV site and very easy to follow. The unique thing about this project was crocheting into only half of the stitch to get a thin ribbing effect on the side that is outward. (Hard to see in the pictures.)

Basically, it’s alternating 3 rows of single crochets for each color into a rectangle about 9 inches long. The short ends are sewn together and then the bottom bunched and sewn shut. The bottom was the hardest part because I think the yarn was too thick, so it seems bulkier than it should be.

After the sewing, the pouch gets turns inside out and the top gets a ribbon woven through to make a tie. I chose a fun sparkly green ribbon that I bought brand new from Michael’s a few days ago. The day after this was completed, I found this on the floor:

Ribbon with teeth marks...

Guess I won’t be using the sparkly green ribbon anymore…

My current project is this scarf to practice my knit ribbing (knit 2, purl 2):

The color is actually a darker magenta mixed with rows of multi-colored pinks and purples… and since I’m not too excited about the color, I may scrap this unless someone wants to buy it.

After the scarf, I’ll attempt some small purses. I’d like my crochet/knit projects to be sell-able. Etsy store details to come! If you or someone you know has an Etsy store, I’d love pointers.

Last visit, I had the traditional Cincinnati chili over waffle fries. It was the best and weirdest chili I’ve ever had- tasted like there was cinnamon in the recipe. (After looking into this chili phenomenon it seems that cinnamon is an ingredient.) I didn’t go out of my way to make sure the meal was g-free, but I didn’t get sick so I think that meal would be safe for anyone else who is a sensitive Celiac. The waiter at my recent visit said the Cincinnati was g-full so I ordered the Spicy Pizza chili over fries. I felt bad doing a review without trying the bread, courtesy of Molly’s, so I cheated even more on my South Beach Diet Phase 1 (no carbs) to be able to honestly say that Molly’s garlic bread at Lilli’s is AMAZING. They also serve rolls to make any of the sandwiches that Lili’s offers.

spicy pizza chili on fries

Pros:

• They know what’s g-free and what ingredients are in their foods.
• The chili tastes amazing and is healthy (extras like mac & cheese or fries probably aren’t as healthy).
• They serve Molly’s bread.
• Prices are very reasonable and affordable.

garlic bread

Notice the bread bending in the picture? That’s because it’s SOFT. If you’ve had any g-free bread, you would know that most are crumbly and disgusting and dry. This bread was soft and delicious, with a perfectly toasted crust.

soft bread

Cons:

• Long wait (at least for this visit): The wait was 45 minutes! For 5 people in a slightly empty place, food should have been up in no time. And one person ordered a burger done medium, so that also should have been fairly quick.
• Poor service : When the food came, there was no order of magical garlic bread and the burger was burnt and well-done. (Burger was obviously sent back and later refunded.) The waitstaff never asked how the burger was to make sure it was done the right way… then the bread finally came a bit after… then I had my special “oh my god I am eating delicious g-free bread” moment…. and then after the table was done eating, out came a new burger (another 30 minute wait).

I have never had to wait so long (or witness someone else waiting) for food. There was a small party going on but they were mostly drinking, not really seated to eat. And the other 4 patrons in the place weren’t eating. I don’t know what was wrong with the kitchen that night…

I would recommend going when you aren’t starving. Just in case.

G-Free Grade = B-

Luciana’s Favorite iPhone Apps, Edition 1

1. Words With Friends ($2.99) - Scrabble, but better because you can play with random people or someone you know. I’m quite the wordsmith so if you want to challenge me I’m Lulubelle110.



2. Find iPhone (free) – Login and this app will find any phone that you connect to it. My husband and I have each other in our app so that we can see where the other’s phone is (or our own). This is perfect for spying on someone or locating a lost cell phone or timing dinner perfectly to your spouse’s arrival home. What’s also nice is that you can disable the phone from the app in case it’s stolen.



3. Netflix (free) – I’m obsessed with Netflix. I love the instant viewing. I love the DVDs sent to me. I love the lack of late fees. I love everything. I watch Netflix constantly, so I upgraded my account to the unlimited and it was worth it. Now with this app I can watch Netflix at work on my lunch break (and with the iPhone4 retina display it’s perfection).



4. Live Poker by Zynga (free) - I think this is the best free poker app out there. There are tournaments, sit and go tables, stat recording and more. You need a facebook account to sign up, so I used a fake one to not flood my real one with any spam it might cause (so far none). I love that you can play with real people. The other free apps are only with AI player which isn’t any fun. I learned I’m excellent at poker and I want to play for money soon.



5. Barnes & Noble (free) – Your basic mobile shopping app, but it lets you search by barcode. So if you’re out and want to scan a book to see if a local B&N has it in stock, you can. Plus, you can reserve books right from the app to pick up in-store.



I’m always looking for great new apps… the cheaper the better!