One Glorious Ambition

Book Review

One Glorious Ambition by Jane Kirkpatrick. 

I stumbled upon this quite by accident. Or chance.  Or happenstance. 

But I picked it up. And I sat down with it in the library. And I started to read while I waited for my other family members to be ready to leave. 

And before any of my family members showed up to announce their readiness to leave, I was already starting chapter three. 

I think I have found a new criteria for whether a book goes home with me from the library.  If I am still reading twenty pages in, then there's a pretty good chance I'll keep reading. 

No guarantees, but a good chance. 

This book passed that first test. 

One Glorious Ambition

Eating Gluten-Free at Legal Sea Foods

Lunner or Linner?

It was rather late for lunch and still too early for dinner on our recent day of playing hooky.

Not quite lunch, not yet dinner. Lunner? Linner?

In any case, we were in the midst of some serious hooky. All four of us. Two kids. Two adults. Lots of hooky players.

Remember hooky? Ditch whatever it is you are supposed to be doing and go do something fun instead?

You used to have to be sneaky. Not tell anyone. No announcing it beforehand. Don't tell anyone afterwards.

Secret.

Well, I guess hooky is still supposed to be sneaky and secret. Even now. Even today.

It is just a lot harder now to not post a picture of your whereabouts on Facebook. No secrets with fb. And once fb knows, everybody knows.

So much for sneaky. Or secret.

Well, it should be no secret that Legal Seafood in Washington, DC is a fantastic place to eat gluten-free! And it is conveniently located amongst several museums and Chinatown. What could be better?

Ah! The food!

Legal Sea Foods 

Sonoma Gluten Free Wheat Free Wraps versus Rudi's Gluten-Free Plain Tortillas

Head-to-Head Wraps

Not head wraps.

A head-to-head comparison of gluten-free wraps and tortillas.

It is time. Tortillas and wraps have been slow to come to the gluten-free market. I know. I've looked. For years.

Not corn tortillas. They've always been here. They will always be here. Flour tortillas? That's another story.

For those several years, all I could find were rice flour tortillas. They were exciting at first, since I finally had some sort of tortilla other than corn that I could eat.

But they quickly disappointed. I wanted to make enchiladas for the family and that is easy enough with normal, wheat flour tortillas.

It was a whole other story with those rice tortillas. Spoon in some enchilada sauce, place all the fillings in the middle, and roll. And watch them crack and break. Every time. Crack and break my enchilada-loving heart.

Broken enchilada-filled rice tortillas. Every single rice tortilla broke every single time. And the flavor wasn't even worth it.

Fast forward a few years. The gluten-free companies of the world had been working on their tortillas. 

They are finally here. "Flour" tortillas, gluten-free. But they are not all created equal. Here are two options I have found in my local health-food store recently, Sonoma and Rudi's.

Sonoma Gluten Free Wheat Free Wraps

The Lover's Dictionary

Book Review

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan.

This is a relatively new release.

And it is a bit of a different kind of read. Not your usual romance. Not your usual novel. Not your usual anything.

It is a quick read. But it is not a quick read.

It all depends on how you read it.

This summer has been the summer of rain. At least around here.

That might be good for reading this book. That might mean you don't want to spend any time outside in the rain. You might want to spend your time inside reading.

Then again, all this rain might be bad for reading this book. You might just want to stare out at the rain and not keep reading.

But read you will. Rain or no rain. Curiosity should guide you to reading this.

The Lover's Dictionary

Eating Gluten-Free at Outback Steakhouse

Better is Good

I was with family. More than the usual few of us for an extended family dinner.

I didn't have input into our dinner location. Someone other than me chose Outback Steakhouse.

But that's fine. Really. I was with family and that matters more than what I can and can't eat.

Well, okay, sometimes. Matters more only sometimes.

It depends on which particular members of said extended family are present.

In any case, dinner was with family this night and the family (or some segment of it) had selected Outback.

I've been to Outback a few times over the years since I've needed to be gluten-free. Each time has been separated by a few years. Each time has produced a different gluten-free experience.

At least I can say with absolute clarity that each successive gluten-free experience at Outback has gotten better.

Better understanding from servers. Better information provided. Better confidence that I would eat safely.

Better is good.

So, I wasn't concerned about eating gluten-free this night with the family.

Little did I realize that this particular night at Outback held an even better surprise for me.

Outback Steakhouse

Bisquick Gluten-Free Pancake and Baking Mix and Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcakes

Berry Time!

It was the Fourth of July and we had fresh strawberries and raspberries in the house.

We had to do something delicious and relatively quick with them. We had other food to make for all of us and we would not be delayed getting to our fireworks!

We threw around all kinds of ideas, starting from making a trifle (fantastically delicious, but three separate steps, plus assembly) to making strawberry pie (likewise, in all aspects) to just sugaring the berries and topping French vanilla ice cream with them.

None of these options hit the right spot with anyone. We were going to have to find something else to do with these beautiful berries.

Finally, it hit me. Strawberry (and raspberry) shortcakes!

That was it. We were off and running. And it just so happened that we had some speedy help in the cupboard: Gluten-Free Bisquick!

Gluten-Free Bisquick