But these. Oh, these pancakes. They were fluffy clouds of breakfast heaven. I have a sneaking suspicion that they might have been cooked in bacon grease (aka magic flavor dust). I might have used the incredibly descriptive term "amazeballs" when a friend asked how they tasted.
It was kind of a busy weekend.
Blondie and I saw friends, had dinner with my family (because my cousin got engaged!), went to a baking demo, went out for lunch, managed to get in a few photos for my class and I made caramels.
Blondie and I were going to do a scavenger hunt/race for an engagement ring on Sunday. But we skipped it. To go to a gluten free baking demo at Williams Sonoma. But I will tell you more about that tomorrow, once I bake something with their new gluten free flour.
Blondie graciously jammed on his guitar so I could do some homework. (Rapid fire shots combined into one swell image).
The real story is this caramel recipe. And a cookbook that I think you need.
You see, I was that strange kid that absolutely adored bulls eyes and cow tail candies. The chewy caramel filled with the creamy crumbly white sugar stuff.
This was my second time making the recipe, and it is divine. (It sure made my dad happy too, he is the one who got me hooked on this type of candy as a kid).
It is Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado. Now, before you get all conspiracy theorist on me, yes, she is Sandra’s sister. I refuse to hold this against her (mostly because Sandra was super gracious to the neighborhood kids when she filmed While You Were Sleeping).
Almost the entire cookbook is gluten free. Simply because when you are cooking with sugar and making candies, you don’t need flour. (There are a half dozen recipes at the back of the book, but you could substitute your favorite cake, crepe or pâte à choux recipe for hers and just follow the technique and recipes for frosting and and other bits).
There are recipes for several different fudges, marshmallows, rock candy, milk candy and to top it off, cotton candy.
Another bonus? The ingredients are listed in both US measurements and by weight. (I made the caramels using both sets of measurements). For those of you afraid of relinquishing your measuring cups, the conversions are there. For those of you not in the states or who have started to use scales for baking, the weights are right there for you.
The instructions are clearly written in a friendly voice. She sounds like a friend teaching you how to do these things in the kitchen might sound. There are sweet stories in the recipe head notes and all the recipes look fabulous. (I would like an excuse to make fairy floss, so someone needs to have a party for me to bring it to).
I am sure this book is not dentist approved, but the recipes are fun and approachable. Plus, the author lists variations for each recipe.
| Salted Caramels with Vanilla Bean Cream |
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Caramel
Vanilla Bean Cream
Try using instant espresso powder in the fondant to create caramel frappucino candies.
You can make fat rolls (like the ones pictured), by leaving a half inch of fondant from the short sides, cutting the caramel in half lengthwise, and then in half crosswise to make 4 shorter, wider rolls.
The first person to tell me that beer is not a breakfast food, needs to go to Munich in September and experience Oktoberfest. You will then know that, at times, beer is perfecctly acceptable, and possibly even necessary for breakfast.
This story begins with a trip to the University of Illinois’ Meat Sales Room. There was a large sign on the door advertising frankfurters and weiswurst. I had never eaten weiswurst, but they were loading up the cases with some of it, so of course, I had to try it. (Weis in weiswurst is for the color white, not the same as the weiss in weissbier which is wheat). The ingredients made it sound delicious, so of course I had to buy it. So, $3.50 later, I had a new kind of sausage to try. After some googling, I found out that you eat it for breakfast with a soft pretzel, mustard and beer. Blondie was coming to town for the weekend, so I knew what I had to do.
I was prepared with a recipe for gluten-free soft pretzels from Gluten-Free Girl & the Chef, I had mustard that my mom had made in my fridge begging to be served with some sausage and I had one wheat beer from the last time Blondie & I did a pick a six at Friar Tucks. We went to go get a gluten free beer for me to have with our breakfast, and while looking for cider (what I normally pick over beer because of the awful flavor of some of the easiest to find gluten-free varieties), I found this ridiculously expensive sorghum beer ($4.99 for a pint). But, I had to try it because it came in such a fantastic bottle, and I wanted the bottle to be a little vase.
Turns out that the bottle is based on ones from the 1770s. This beer is imported from the UK, so it is only available at specialty liquor stores (and not your typical grocery store).
Sunday morning rolled around and we had home-made mustard, our pretzels and our beers. The beer was probably one of the most delicious ones I have tried since going gluten free. It was bright and hoppy. It had a great mouth feel and even Blondie wanted some of mine. I didn’t want to share. It is amazingly better than that mass-produced beer from St. Louis. And totally worth a treat. If you like a good beer, this one is labeled as a pilsner style sorghum beer and is worth every delicious penny.
So soon after a disastrous night out, I went out to eat. Twice. I know you all probably think that I am crazy, but the way my life works, eating out happens a lot more than it should.
Today was kind of a crazy over night jaunt to Chicago for a doctor visit, but it was also P’s birthday. So, we went out to eat. This time, we went to PeiWei instead of our favorite burger joint (because I made my mom take me there for lunch 🙂 ). PeiWei is an fast casual Asian restaurant thought up by the geniuses behind PF Changs (another gluten free favorite of mine).
I would go back just for the futuristic coke machine that had 8 kinds of Fanta Zero. P would go back for the excessive number of Powerade choices (I never said he had good taste).
We arrived right before closing – as happens with last minute trips – and were greated pleasantly. The gluten free menu, albeit short, was different enough from the salads with oil & vinegar dressing or burger no bun orders that I typically have that it was refreshing. The sweet and sour chicken was bright, fresh and not overly sweet. P seemed to enjoy his Pad Thai, but as that was not gluten free, I didn’t taste it.
I got to watch them cook my meal, as the kitchen is open (and, frankly, I am now paranoid). But the cooks communicated that the dish was gluten free several times once the ticket came up. They seemed to gave down what they could and could not do. All in all it was a refreshing experience.
I don’t think PeiWei is that new, my cousin who travels to North Carolina regularly says that it is one of his go-to favorites for gluten free dining. And now, there is one close to my parents’ house (too bad not in the small town that I live in 🙁 ).
A story of cross contamination and emergency room fun on a warm April evening.
I will spare you the other horrors of my night at a local restaurant. I live in a university town and it was a parents’ weekend, so everything was busy and hectic and even McDonalds was taking reservations (I kid, but it is not far off). So some issues were to be expected – you know, long waits and slow-ish service. What I didn’t expect was a total lack of control in the kitchen. I reviewed the other problems on Yelp yesterday.
I chose a restaurant that my mom & aunt had eaten at during the same weekend last year. My mom is gluten intolerant so the fact that she had a good experience there previously meant a lot to me.
This time, I hope the kitchen was just in a jumble. The menu clearly states that there is gluten free pasta available. I talked to the hostess when we made our reservations and she assured me that they could handle a gluten free order on a busy night.
The whole night was a comedy of errors. Nothing went right from the very start. After the drama, it was finally time to order. I asked 3 times exactly what was in my dish. Chicken, white wine, oregano, parmesan. On pasta.
Well, our waitress told me that the gluten free pasta substitution was a penne, so imagine my surprise when the two gluten free pastas arrived and were spaghetti. I asked the waitress to go back and verify with the kitchen. The kitchen told her that they ran out of penne and used gluten free spaghetti. I asked my mom what she thought (it has been so long since I have had normal pasta, I am not sure I could tell by texture what it was). She poked her spaghetti and said she thought it had the right texture.
I took a bite and it was delicious. Absolutely delicious. I took a second bite and my throat started to itch. I should have stopped there. I took a third bite and my throat closed up. I am very lucky that there was a nurse at the table next to ours and that I had an epi pen in my bag. I have never had to use one before and I was panicked. My mom had forgotten that I had an epi pen (this is what happens when you live 3 hours apart), so my tossing my purse at her totally confused her. The nurse asked if I had benadryl or an epi pen and I pointed at the bag. She managed to administer the medicine and my airways opened up. We left the restaurant immediately to go to the emergency room.
Our meal was comped and the owner has asked my aunt to tell me to call back. The owner assured my aunt that they would figure out what happened because after he talked to the kitchen staff, they assured him that the pasta was gluten free. I called today but they were closed. I will post a follow up when I hear back from the restaurant.
Now, how could this happen? I ordered a sauce that was not cream based and made sure that it did not include flour when talking to the waitress. She said that she made sure that the kitchen didn’t put any crutons on the pasta (not sure why they would do that). Our current theory is that the pasta was cooked in the same water as regular pasta or that one of their spice blends has wheat in it to keep it from clumping.
After talking to a fellow gluten-free co-worker I realized my mistake. I needed to reiterate the allergy. All of them. I should have talked to a kitchen manager. I should have ordered a non-pasta dish.
I survived after a 4 hour hold in the emergency room (I was told this is standard procedure) and am now on a 5 day steroid course and looking for an allergist – there seems to be only one in town, so it won’t be hard to choose!
Let this be a warning to not try a gluten free option the first time on a busy night. And not to eat out without talking to a chef or kitchen manager.
This is the first time I got hit with a dish that made me that sick. I have gotten the scratchy throat and sent back food that had crutons or bread on it. Heck, even Panera has served me without creating this type of reaction. I have eaten at Italian restaurants that offer gluten free options (I really love Maggiano’s and have heard good things about Biaggi’s). Maybe the only places that get it right consistently are the ones with corporate standards?
Any advice that you have on how to follow up with the restaurant and how to prevent this in the future would be incredibly helpful.
Edit: The restaurant invited me to come back for a free dinner. And promptly went out of business. I took the free meal and after talking to the chef, was told that my dinner was most likely contaminated with shellfish. (I can tell you that the pasta the first night was definitely wheat pasta because my mom also got sick). Seriously? After being assured that my dish had just the ingredients they told me? And being told it was being prepared separately?