Gluten free costco and TJ Rockwell's

Found a few more GF goodies at Costco.  I already love them for carrying a 6 pack of the Pacific Broth for $11.99.  But I roamed the aisles and found some breads in the freezer and a GF all-purpose flour in a 5 lb bag.  Way to go Costco! 

Also, we had dinner with some friends at T.J. Rockwell's.  it's been a while since we had been there, and I knew they had changed the menu.  I emailed them to see if they had any gluten free options.  I was told to ask for the gluten free menu when I got there.  They indeed have a gluten free menu.  It's small, but it's nice.   I had the Key Largo Shrimp and Chicken.  It was OK.  I would have liked a stronger sauce flavor.  I am looking forward to trying the ribs next time.  MM MMMM Good.  They also have Angry Orchard on tap.  It used to be Woodchuck but now they offer this instead which is a fine cider. If only they would make the rhino fries gluten free……

Lazzaro's Italian Bistro

My mother passed on a gift card that was given to her to us as the menu had a lot of gluten free items listed, and well, no matter how old you get, your mom still likes to take care of you.   So we decided to go for lunch today. First, I know this used to be a flower shop and apartment building.   I had been in the one of the apartments before and got to tell my friend who has moved away that I had lunch today in her old kitchen.   The place is very cozy and cute.  The menu is great, they offer a lot of gluten free options, including as I was told when we were leaving, a gluten free cupcake with canoli cream topping with cocoa dusting.  Oh .... My......God!!!!  I can't wait to go back and try that alone.  My litmus test, as always, is the pizza.   The crust didn't have much flavor per say, but the texture was great.  And finally, I got a pizza margherita with sauce instead of tomato slices.  I was very happy.  I would get it again.  Ken got a turkey and bacon panini.  He said it was good, could have used a little bit more meat in it, but over all we agreed we will be back and we are planning a family gathering there to introduce more people to it.  

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/160/1721453/restaurant/Harrisburg/Lazzaros-Italian-Bistro-Palmyra"><img alt="Lazzaro's Italian Bistro on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1721453/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>

Bread , it was bound to happen

So I hadn't had a really bad loaf of bread yet. Some didn't rise like they should have but they were passable at least. Then the concave loaf happened. So ashamed, I immediately got cracking on another loaf to rectify the situation. The fallen loaf is now bird food. LOL. nice way to dispose of it I think? But for your amusement, a picture of the bad loaf, and one of the good loaf…..

Gf dinners are fun!

Beef tips with GF: cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, chicken broth (I ran out of beef broth) and spaghetti! I also made garlic bread out of my newest loaf of GF bread out of the bread machine :-) I can say, I was totally digging this!

Bread, glorious bread

So the bread journey continues. Last night I made loaf #4 and by far the most normal looking one. It doubled in size and has real nooks and crannies in it! You wouldn't be able to tell it's Gluten Free. SCORE! I think the best tasting loaf so far has been the cinnamon raisin. I am making another loaf of that this weekend. :-) The White loaf is going to be cut up for stuffing for our Christmas dinner with my family tomorrow.
Also of note, Classico's red and white sauces are gluten free. I decided to mix the vodka sauce and Alfredo together and bake with some penne, Italian cheese blend and gf bread crumbs. Mmm mmmm good! The next night we reheated it and added the AppleGate farms gf chicken nuggets with some cheese on-top for a bite sized chicken parm. I can say this was awesome. Will make again :)

Chocolate chip cookies

So on Pinterest I started following Nicole Hunn, and her blog http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/.  I even purchased her book through Amazon.   She promotes a product I praised before, Better Batter, and it's in a lot of her recipe's.  I followed her chocolate chip cookie recipe today, to see if I could prevent the very loose and crumbly , yet tasty cookies from last time.  And you know what?  It worked perfectly.  They are delicious and not falling apart.  Before they were spreading out very thin and just didn't hold together very well.  Incidentally, the crumble were excellent on ice cream, just sayin....
So I highly recommend following her and her recipes.  She really has been doing the gluten free for a while and has done a lot of the experimentation and documentation that makes it easier for us newbies.   Hopefully I will feel brave enough to try one of her bread recipe's, after I am done savoring the bread I got from Betsy's Bakery.  That Raisin Cinnamon bread is just MMM MMMMMMM Good!