Gluten Free Breeze (formerly Brendygirl) Blog

I found a house to buy, so since I'm moving out, might as well mess up the kitchen here....So I tried the beer batter onion ring recipe on this site, but the first "test" rings came out without the batter on very well, so I had a brainstorm and after dipping the raw rings in batter, I coated them in gluten-free Orgran bread crumbs. They turned out crunchy, greasy, and sweet. So savory! They looked and tasted so good, I think non-gfreople would eat them!

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Traveldude was feeling under the weather so I invited him over to rest and I took care of him. I had banned cooking for a week to rest my wrists (tendonitis) (it worked-they feel much better), so I used coupons all day to get us Jamba Juice for breakfast (I tried the pomogranate one and it was fan-tabulous!), salads for lunch from Portillo's, and I dragged him to Z's Pizza when he had to go to a nearby coaching function, to finally get my gluten-free pizza and it was AWESOME! Crunchy, thin crust and fresh toppings. I ordered the "California", which is veggies, plus pepperoni. I'm going back soon!

I wasted no time to bake the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix for breakfast (I couldn't wait) and it was good. It had a slightly undone spot in the center, but the edges were so done, that I didn't want them to get crunchy. Perhaps my oven doesn't cook evenly. It only lasted 3 days around here! oink!

Since being off work I'd been house-hunting, organizing my life and apartment, sunbathing, floating in the pool, reading, card-making, watching Wimbledon, cooking, doing yoga, volunteer matching, applying to be an event organizer in my free time, and skyping my mother on the other coast. I was getting a little bored, and as I was shopping, I was approached by a cute, friendly man with an accent. Let's call him Island Dude. So after talking and emailing, we met at a museum and he ate lunch uncomfortably while I watched (I'd purposely eaten earlier-I didn't know it would bother him) and have done several things like the botanical gardens, the beach, watching tennis, dancing, watching a parade, and then...DUN-DUN...DUNNNNNN!...eating out.

He's very kind and concerned about my food issues, so we went to a place in L.A. recommended online. It was a Thai place with a waitress who sternly insisted she knew about gluten free and told me I couldn't have any of the meats or shrimp because they are all marinated in fish sauce (which is usu. gluten-free, unbeknowingst to her) and she recommended the fried calamari because "it doesn't have sauce, it's just battered in flour." Island Dude's eyes got wide at that, because even tho he's a rookie player on the gluten free team, he understands about no flour. --He's the first dude to correctly presume that he would need to brush his teeth after eating or drinking gluten-y stuff if he wanted to kiss me! ---Anyway, I ate a side of steamed rice and a side of vegetables. I.Dude pretended to not be sad for me, and after he brushed his teeth, he showered me with kisses.

The next time we went out, he said, we will keep going places until you can have something decent! We agreed on a Cuban hole-in-the-wall and I asked lots of ?s, (surprisingly, when I opened my mouth, it all came out in espanol), and the waitress LISTENED!! like "Is there flour in the beans? I'm allergic to flour. Is the rice cooked in anything besides water? I'm allergic to chicken broth. etc. I enjoyed a savory, flavorful meal of salmon and rice and beans. I was going to get plantains, but Island Dude said his seemed like they'd been reheated.

So I'm looking forward to spending more time in L.A. with Island Dude and trying all the restaurants and bakeries that I researched today from a gluten free food reviewer. I'm going to fry more onion rings and try to make hot wings. And since I'm going to buy all new appliances for my kitchen, and they'll never have touched gluten, I have to ponder my gluten policy for my new home. I'm leaning toward, gluten outdoors only. Leave your shoes and gluten by the door.

Menu for today: Breakfast: Celiac Specialties Cherry Streudel (yum-oooh) LUnch: egg salad on toast with corn on cob (must eat it b4 it's too late) and grapes. Dinner: Z's pizza. Dessert: homemade onion rings.