Udi's and Food For Life and Schär

The week-long vacation in Williamsburg, VA went very smoothly in terms of our GFCF needs. Staying in a hotel suite with a full kitchen helped a lot. (Having a full kitchen made packing GFCF back-up food and snacks very easy.) The Trader Joe's in town, as well as, the "natural" section of the regular supermarket, helped a lot, as well.

Eating out was a pleasure. Fat Canary, where we went to celebrate my mom's birthday, took extremely good care of Gem and me. The waiter had background checked every item on the menu so that he could advise us with the confidence that knowing the facts provides.

Gem thought his salmon was delectable and my scallops over lentils with stewed cherry tomatoes was sublime. I also enjoyed the lobster salad appetizer and we were served GFCF crackers instead of the bread basket. For dessert we both opted for the peach sorbet. Yum.

I also ate a dinner at A Chef's Kitchen where they accommodated my request for no gluten and dairy well. The olive oil they served me to accompany the corn bread was so delicious I bought a bottle of it after dinner in the shop.

Our last dinner out was at Food For Thought which has a gluten-free menu. Gem had the tuna. I chose to throw caution and commitment to the wind and enjoyed a south of the Mason-Dixon line type of dinner: crab cake, creamed spinach and sweet tea. (I paid for it dearly.)

Finally, a shout out to Busch Gardens. Their fries are gluten-free (it's rare to find places that have dedicated fryers for non-gluten menu offerings) and Gem enjoyed an order for lunch one day.

The week after our return, I did very little cooking. I was exhausted and had little energy or mental space for anything other than reading and sleeping. In our absence, Cap had discovered that Whole Foods is now carrying a GFCF bread in the fresh (not frozen) section.

Udi's sandwich bread is, indeed, good. But, their bagels are even better. I love them. Look at that crust!


Between the hot weather and getting back into the swing of things (read: playdate after playdate after playdate), I still haven't been cooking much. These bagels and Food For Life Brown Rice Tortillas (these are in the frozen section but they thaw very quickly) have been getting me through. I love wraps and these tortillas are a hit for me (not as much for the rest of the fam).

Oh, and one last ready-to-eat product I want to mention: Schär's Italian breadsticks. I found these in the "natural" section of the supermarket in Williamsburg. The kids and I all loved them. They turned out to be a life saver on the car ride back, helping to settle Sag's motion sick tummy. (For anyone local, the Shoprite on Broad Street carries some Schär products...don't know yet if they carry the breadsticks.)

Blueberry ice cream

I'm enjoying the ice cream maker. I made strawberry ice cream for our family celebration of Gem's birthday about a month ago. I've had The Vegan Scoop from the library for nearly as long and made peanut butter banana ice cream while the boys were in massachusetts.

Tonight, I made blueberry ice cream while making and eating dinner with the kids. We all had some for dessert.

It's yummy. especially with the local, organic berries. (Red Sox Daddy made a couple of blueberry pies over the weekend which were sublime.)

It's vanilla-y. Next time I may scale back a bit.

It's surprising. I swear I was getting hints of chocolate/coffee. What?

Anyway, here's the...sorry, I can't resist!...scoop :-)

Blueberry Ice Cream from The Vegan Scoop

1 cup soy milk, divided
2 Tbs. arrowroot powder
1 cup blueberries
3/4 cup sugar, divided
splash of lemon juice (or a squeeze :-)
2 cups soy creamer
1 Tbs. vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup soy milk with arrowroot powder and set aside.

Mix blueberries, 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice in a small sauce pan. Heat until boiling and some blueberries have burst. Set aside.

Mix soy creamer, remaining 3/4 cup soy milk, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a sauce pan and cook over low heat. once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. This will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably.

Add vanilla extract and blueberry sauce you created earlier.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

Yield: 1 quart.

Notes:

• sorry to those of you who cannot do soy...this recipe is soy-rific.

• I squeezed in some lemon juice directly from a lemon.

• to my eye, the liquid does not thicken noticeably when I add the arrowroot "cream" (not really creamy, in my opinion). but the arrowroot does do the trick, the resulting ice cream is quite creamy.

• I always make the ice cream base the day before and chill it overnight. the base needs to be absolutely cold in order to get good ice cream texture (the liquid in the mixing bowl needs to be absolutely frozen as well).

• I love the ice cream when it is just made. It's soft and creamy, cold and sweet. Any leftovers can be placed in a freezer-safe air tight container and frozen. This ice cream, however, will be very hard and on the icy side. You can leave it on the counter for a bit to soften it up, but to me, thus far, it just isn't the same as 'fresh'.

Greek tofu salad

I'm working the CSA shares with more ease this season. The mindful thing is kicking in a bit more organically with each new moon. With a lot of fresh dill on hand, I was inspired to make this simple, cheap and tasty dish. I had my salad over some leftover jasmine rice.

You can find the recipe here.