In the past I’ve posted lists of gluten-free / gluten-friendly restaurants
Max’s Wine Dive
for the benefit of out of town guests attending Austin City Limits and SXSW, in Austin. Look here, here, and here for previous lists. To these lists I’m adding to more restaurants:: Max’s Wine Dive and Cenote.
If you want to cry for joy, for longing, for nostalgia, for something once lost but now regained, run as fast as you can to Max’s Wine Dive and order the gluten-free fried chicken. Continue reading
Today I have two things to say to anyone who wants to listen: Mi-Del’s Gluten-Free Limited Edition Candy Cane Cremes and Trader 
Joe’s cashew meal / flour. I’ll try to cover these topics quickly: the temperature is supposed to reach a whopping high of 40 degrees within the hour, the ice is melting, and I HAVE to get out and run before the temperature drops and darkness falls.
I’ll begin with Mi-Del gluten-free Candy Cane Cremes. These cookies are chocolate sandwich cookies filled with a peppermint cream filling. DO NOT BUY THESE COOKIES, unless you have will-power of steel. Oh, one cannot stop at just one of these chocolate peppermint cremes, or two, or a few! Considering that these cookies are store-bought, as well as gluten-free, they are exceptionally delicious. Mi-Del released this flavor just before Christmas; however, on a recent trip to Whole Foods (at The Quarry in San Antonio) I found some still in stock and picked up a box or two (Ok! Three boxes! But don’t judge me until you’ve tried the cookies . . . . ). Not one to habitually purchase cookies off the store shelf, I am relieved that these cookies are seasonal. I fear I lack the will power to resist buying boxes of these cookies often were they on store shelves all year long. I’m thinking of using these cookies for a Christmas-y dessert; perhaps I’ll develop a recipe for gluten-free peppermint bark cheesecake and use Mi-Del Candy Cane Cremes for the crust. I’m working it out in my mind right now. Of course, I’ll have to buy more boxes of the cookies for research and development purposes. Um, yeah. I’ll need a few more boxes for experimentation, and for no other reason. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Continue reading
As ACL weekend approaches, the restaurant reviews on my blog are getting major hits. I’m guessing that many Celiac / gluten- 
intolerant people who plan to be in Austin that weekend are already scoping out the gluten-free offerings. In the interest of possibly helping those people, I am posting this brief review of Hut’s Hamburgers on 6th St. I really wanted to add some gluten-free recipes to my blog before I added more restaurant reviews. I have my recipe for my three-layer gluten-free vanilla bean cake with cocoa-almond butter cream frosting nearly ready to post.
I’ve also nearly perfected my gluten-free hard apple cider cheesecake recipe.
But time these days flies by and with so little time to spend at the computer, I’ll just post what I hope will be a helpful review to the lovely gluten-free people who will be guests in Austin ACL weekend.
Eat at Hut’s Hamburgers.
Seriously. Phillip and I ate there recently, and although I admit to having gluten-envy over his chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and breaded, fried okra, I really rejoiced in the burger I was able to eat at Hut’s. The burger had chili on it! Do you hear? CHILI! Gluten-free chili! Made in-house, so the waiter knew the ingredients and reassured me that it’s gluten-free! Finding gluten-free chili is so difficult! Even finding canned gluten-free chili for a quick chili dog is nearly impossible. Ok, (sadly, but as usual) you’ll have to skip the fries if you are sensitive to cross-contamination (no dedicated fryer) but the people at Hut’s are very helpful in making sure Celiacs and the gluten-intolerant can safely eat in their establishment. I ordered the Tuby’s Tickler burger, which comes with a load of chili, a mound of cheddar cheese, and a pile of jalapeno peppers.
All this scrumptiousness served on a soft, tasty gluten-free bun – for a reasonable price!
The burger is there, under the lettuce and tomatoes, I promise!
“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.” (John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley: In Search of America)
Yesterday I had one of those magical runs, the type of run that inspires the subliminal thought “this is why I love running” to flow underneath all the conscious thoughts that one ponders as she runs. I can’t say why, exactly, the run was so awesome – at least from a training perspective. I ran only five miles, a shorter distance than I had planned for the day, and I had gotten a late start. The temperature was already hot. The bright sun, already high in the sky, was unrelenting in its determination to super-light and heat the world (or at least the part of the world in which I was running). The Crown Ridge neighborhood I had chosen for its hills had zero shade under which I might find some relief as I ran my hill repeats. Yet though my pace was slow, I managed to run the reps without walking even one step. I listened to the cry of the red-tailed hawks as they glided on wing over-head, flying low enough to occasionally cast their shadows over me as they circled above. I could hear the Tejano music on the radios listened to by the construction crews as they worked building houses in the distance. Somehow all of these elements of my run came together to excite in me anew my sense of place: I was home. Everything in that moment came together perfectly to exemplify what makes South Texas, well, South Texas! With the exhilaration that accompanies a run well completed and enjoyed, I drove home from Crown Ridge looking forward to and planning my second work out for the day. Plans for a second work out include careful planning for lunch. Since I had a fairly arduous late morning work-out and planned a second, evening work-out, I would have to eat well, but not too heavily, for lunch
Last week, I picked up some gluten-free Bubba Turkey Burgers at Sprouts. I had never tried these burgers. They’re frozen, but judging from the cooking instructions on the package, the burgers cook easily and quickly. They seemed like good way to get in some protein at lunch or supper time, or between work-outs. Yesterday, I decided to try a Bubba turkey burger as my between-work-out meal. The burger did cook quickly. I pan fried it, just a few minutes on each side. I planned a fifteen mile bike ride as my second work-out of the day, and since I had a hard work-out just before lunch, I decided to get in a few carbs in addition to the protein by eating the burger on Udi’s millet chia bread. The four ounce turkey burger fit perfectly on the Udi’s gluten-free bread slices. I topped the burger with muenster cheese, some Organic Girl super greens, and a small tomato from Phil’s garden. The burger was actually juicy, as the Bubba website claims. It had a texture much like the texture of a home-made turkey burger. The flavor was ok; I prefer beef burgers to turkey burgers, though, so I’ve never had a turkey burger that tasted better than ok. I have, however, had turkey burgers that tasted less than ok. I liked the Bubba turkey burger enough to make Bubba burgers a part of my regular quickly prepared double-work-out day meal rotation. Next time I believe I’ll top the burger with cheddar cheese, bacon, and Fredericksburg Farms Sweet and Hot Jalapenos. Yum.
“In these recent years of hard times, people have started new collaborations and new models of businesses with very low expenses: using a
Gluten-Free Aji De Gallina
personal home or the art studio of a friend is always cheaper than renting, decorating and managing a restaurant,” she tells us. “And the results are attractive, because the service feels warm, human and intimate – you are not part of a commercial routine.” Paula Mourenza, Barcelona Correspondent for Culinary Backstreets (qtd by V Larson in “Barcelona’s Restaurants Go Underground,” Culinary Backstreets, 13 February 2013)
On a recent visit to the grocery store, I saw a jar of Costa Peruana Aji Amarillo Paste. I’d never seen this particular chili paste before, so I decided to try it out. Aji amarillo peppers belong to a different class of peppers than the peppers we commonly use in Texas (jalapenos and poblano). It has a deep yellow-orange color, and a fruity taste. It’s one of the main ingredients that Pervians and Bolivians use in the dishes they cook. When I got home, I (naturally) did a Google search to see what others do with aji amarillo paste. On a website called SaltShaker, I found an interesting recipe for a traditional Peruvian dish called aji de gallina, which I decided to make with my chili paste. Continue reading
Goat Ham at Olivia’s in Austin (picture from Zagat.com)
A post on the Austin blog at Zagat.com lists five Austin restaurants that feature goat meat dishes on their menus. A quick glance at the descriptions of the featured dishes shows that the goat appetizer at Olivia’s is likely gluten-free. It sounds delicious and definitely worth a try.
As an aside, on Olivia’s menu appears the names of the local farmers and ranchers it supports: “thunderheart bison, boggy creek farm, springdale farm, richardson farms, pure luck, jon dromgoole, johnson’s backyard garden, broken arrow ranch, willie nelson, loncito ranch, eagle mountain farmhouse cheese, lonestar meats, bob mcrory, mikuni, countryside farm, engel farms, natural gardener, water oak farm, slow food, neon jungle, houston dairy maids, pola artisan, windy hill farm, texas olive ranch, farmhouse delivery, chef bullington’s garden, fontana coffee roasters, tecolote farm, milagro farm, zhi tea.”
Definitely a place worth checking out (for a special occasion or a date night meal, anyway!).
Deglutenized and Delicious 