Ramblings Unrelated to Gluten

I don't have anything to say about gluten this week. Instead, I've been spending my time hunting for the perfect summer shoe. I haven't found anything I like yet, but that shouldn't be surprising because I am generally hard to please. I'm hoping to find something flattering, supportive, and feminine. This would be a lot easier if I didn't have gigantic feet. If only my quirks were adorable like Zooey Deschanel's. 


My friend Kathleen and I had a tiny Memorial Day BBQ yesterday that ended with grilled pineapple and vanilla ice cream. It's a delicious summer combo and I highly recommend it. I also recommend grilling hotdogs. It is the only way to make hotdogs edible.


I've also been thinking a bit about food allergy etiquette since I'm officially in the midst of glutarded wedding guest season, but that would be a rambling related to gluten so I'll have to think more about it and possibly put it into a gluten-related post. 


And that's all she wrote for this week. Life has been busy with visitors, trips, and weddings. I'll have more relevant stuff for you soon. Happy summer!

Happy Memorial Day!

Let's all take a moment to thank the men and women who have served this country. In fact, let's take more than a moment -- let's take an entire long weekend.

Today, like every day, I want to thank our armed forces and their veterans. Thank you for making so much possible through your commitment and sacrifice. 

I've Been Here For Over A Year

I've been blogging since March 2011 and have been watching my legion of readers slowly grow over the past 13 months. Here's a table of who loves me most, by country:

United States 2,324 Russia 88 Germany 50 United Kingdom 31 Canada 8 Latvia 8 Brazil 4 Peru 4 India 3 Iran 3

Way to go US, which I'm pretty sure are just clicks from people who are my Facebook friends. WTF, single-digit postings? I'll forgive you, though, because having an international readership is pretty darn exciting, even if that readership might be mostly comprised of spambots. Thanks for making the project worthwhile! 


With culturally-appropriate expressions of excitement and sensitivity-oriented snacks for Food Allergy Awareness Week, 
Am

Happy Celiac Awareness Month!

May is National Celiac Disease Awareness Month and May 13-19 is National Food Allergy Awareness Week. I recommend celebrating the glutard(s) in your life by making them a safe treat this month. ...I'll be waiting for my next batch of brownie cookies!  


To kick off our month, the American Celiac Disease Alliance sent a letter to the government requesting one cohesive labeling policy that would cover goods overseen by both the FDA and the USDA. I would love to see this happen since I've been frustrated many times by unclear labeling... most annoyingly when I am sick. As someone who is quite sensitive to gluten, I'd also love to see more labeling pertaining to foods being processed on equipment shared with gluten. These steps would make it a lot easier for me to make decisions about what I do and do not purchase. 


For more information about food allergies in general, check out the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. 

Gluten Free Brownie Cookies

The choice is yours... You can either think of this post as really late or kind of early. In short, life has been pretty distracting lately and I've been tired. Plus, my computer randomly loses its mouse pointer, which makes doing even the most basic of tasks an epic test of my patience. But this be worth the wait -- Gluten Free Brownie Cookies!!! My friend E introduced me to this recipe and although I've never personally baked them because baking isn't where my strengths lie, she says that they're really easy to adapt to be gluten free friendly. The original recipe from Pink Apron can be found here. Here's E's glutard-friendly take:


Gluten Free Brownie Cookies (Thanks, E!!!)
-8 oz bittersweet baking chocolate or good chocolate chips. We like Trader Joe's chocolate chips.
-2 tbsp unsalted butter
-3/4 cup light brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/8 tsp salt
-1/4 cup plus tablespoon(s) gluten free flour blend. I like Gluten Free Panty's All Purpose Flour Blend (in a convenient six-pack on Amazon for you hardcore bakers like me :P)
-1 cup of carefully-vetted butterscotch or white chocolate chips. These can have all sorts of hidden gluten, so read your label carefully. 


Preheat oven to 350. Grease baking sheet or slap some parchment paper on it. Melt chocolate and butter together slowly and carefully (because chocolate is a mofo and will burn easily... just one of the many reasons why I hate baking). Set that sh*t aside to cool.  Beat the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, baking powder, and salt together, then slowly beat in the choco-butter. At this point is where our recipes diverge for a hot second. Add the 1/4 cup of gluten free flour. Then slowly add in extra flour one tablespoon at a time until the dough becomes properly thick. Be careful because the dough will get doughier as the flour absorbs the liquid. Add the chocolate/white chocolate/butterscotch chips (or maybe nuts, too). Then drop the dough on the baking sheet in little balls and bake for about 12 minutes or until tops are look dry but are still soft to the touch. You might want to bake the gluten free cookies for a shorter amount of time since they overbake easily. Remove them from the oven and let them cool and firm up on the cookie sheet for about 10 min, then move them elsewhere for final cooling. 


These are crazy good, yo. Enjoy!