Cafe Claude

French Food in The City

Which city? San Francisco!

San Francisco is a fabulous city for so many reasons, and food is just one of them.

I was traveling recently when I was invited by a colleague to try his favorite French restaurant.

Not just his favorite French restaurant in The City. His favorite French restaurant.

How could I not go?

How could I not go without checking to see if I would be able to eat gluten-free and safely there?

Of course I had to check. So, I pulled up their web site.

No gluten-free menu, but several items on their regular menu that looked to be safe.

But then I saw that their dessert menu has crème brûlée.

I love crème brûlée!

Normally, crème brûlée is gluten-free, but I wasn't about to leave things to chance. I called them.

Yes, their crème brûlée is gluten-free. Just like it is supposed to be.

Favorite French restaurant, here we come!

Café Claude

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Book Review

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

This book was introduced to me by my husband. By my husband checking it out. Who checked it out and started reading it.

Who started reading it, but didn't finish it.

Not a stellar endorsement, if you ask me.

But an introduction it was.

And then I mentioned the book to some friends at work. And they endorsed it.

They gave it a strong, positive endorsement.

That was good enough for me.

I knew only that it was dark and about a circus. That's all, really. But I had just finished a book about a circus. I didn't really know what to expect from Bradbury's circus, but I didn't want to read the two books too close together in time.

So I read other things. And then, finally, I couldn't find anything else I wanted.

Time to get it.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Gluten-Free at Tino's Italian Bistro

Gluten-Free Take-Out

How many times have you found yourself wanting to just call ahead to some food joint and get some take-out?

On the way to a game? In between errands? In the middle of a road trip?

Have you had any success getting safe, gluten-free take-out?

I have found it quite difficult. I usually pack something with me and don't even think about trying grab something on the way anywhere.

But sometimes...

Sometimes you need just the right take-out, so that you don't have to cook.

Like to take to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare?

You bet. I wanted something good, something safe, and something we didn't have to cook ourselves.

Enter Tino's Italian Bistro. It was on the way, looked good, and it has a gluten-free menu!

Tino's Italian Bistro

Think Thin Gluten-Free Protein Bars

Are Protein Bars Food?

There was time in my life when I used protein bars as food.

That was years ago and years before I had to become gluten-free.

That was a sad time.

It was a sad time, because taste and texture and pleasure were missing from that "food." Those protein bars were awful. Barely tolerable. Barely edible.

Why waste so much precious life-time on "barely tolerable"?

I came to learn that protein bars have a purpose, but it is not as a straight up "food."

There are just too many other delicious and nutritious and enjoyable foods out there to use protein bars as part of my regular diet.

But gluten-free protein bars do have a purpose. A very special purpose in the life of this now-gluten-free eater.

They are transportable, packable, life savers.

Truly life savers.

You can try traveling a significant distance to unfamiliar territories without one of these on you. You might get lucky.

Or you can use your luck in a different way.

You might end up thanking your lucky stars that you had a gluten-free protein bar in your bag.

I sure did!

Think Thin Protein and Crunch Bars

The House I Loved

Book Review

The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay.

I have been away from the library lately. Not by choice. But away nonetheless.

Last weekend, I finally got to go back.

And I stopped off at the large print section, to see if there was anything interesting to pick up.

And I needed something to read on the treadmill.

Sometimes it is good to have been away for awhile.

This book was new to the shelf and new to me. But not the author.

This is the same author that wrote Sarah's Key. I enjoyed that book more than a year ago, so I decided to give this one a try.

And it was an added bonus that it was available in large print, just at the time that I needed a large print book.

Some things are meant to happen.

The House I Loved