When Dining Out Gets Dicey

What do you do when a restaurant--literally--serves nothing you can eat?

This has been a very busy, very family-filled week for me, and it included a number of family get-togethers. Fortunately, I love my in-laws, so the social aspect of it was awesome. Unfortunately, Friday night we met at an unfamiliar restaurant that--gasp!--didn't serve anything gluten-free. Ever been in that situation?

After politely asking the server about gluten-free menu items when we first arrived, I received the above information as I headed to the restroom. My response? I smiled brightly, said, "No problem!" and headed to the bathroom...where I did my best not to freak-out, break down in tears, or throw a tantrum. I knew I needed to figure out a solution, but dragging my husband away from his 30-plus extended family members was not an option, nor was politely requesting we move the whole crowd to another restaurant. (It was a surprise party, after all.) Instead, I sent a text to my husband explaining my dilemma (to avoid an emotional outburst), demanded he read the text when I got back to the table (sweetly, of course), and stewed for a bit while he came up with a plan.

After I snapped at him once or twice, my husband suggested we get permission from the manager to bring in outside food and--knowing how petulant I get in these situations--called the server over to make the request. When he came back with said permission granted, I think our server looked more relieved than me! After--again--calling on my husband to locate the closest Wendy's, I took a 15-20 minute round trip to purchase a nice, safe, tasty meal: a plain baked potato and a small chili. To appease my self-pity and brighten my mood, I also swung into a local "farmer's market" grocery store (Sprout's) and purchased four delicious, gluten-free cupcakes with amazing vanilla frosting. (Did I mention this was actually a surprise birthday party, and everyone would soon be enjoying slices of delicious, gluten-filled, chocolate sheet cake?) At the last minute, I also threw in a copy of my favorite magazine (Real Simple) because, you know, I "deserved" it.

When I got back to the restaurant, my family was just getting their food, my husband had a Sprite waiting for me, and no one thought twice about me eating something different...except my son, who kept begging for one of my cupcakes, which I flatly denied him. (He is not gluten-free and later ate two large pieces of chocolate cake--so don't feel too sorry for him.) I could have handled this situation a lot of ways, but I am glad I put my big-girl pants on and found a way to get what I needed without ruining the party for everyone else.

The take-away? Never be afraid to ask for what you need--even if that means eating Wendy's food in the middle of a sit-down Mexican restaurant. Your family--and your digestive system--will thank you for it.

Looking for more tips on gluten-free dining? 

Check out my wining & dining page for a list of tips, restaurants to try, and places to avoid!

Time Warp

Since today is my first "official" day of summer--sayonara summer workshops--I decided to kick it off by baking cornbread muffins for breakfast. My son and husband were still asleep, so I had a unique opportunity to do things like the check the expiration dates on my ingredients and other pantry items.

 Here is what I found:

• Corn meal: Nov. 11 2013 (safe--but close)
• Soy milk: Mar 18 2013 (oops)
• All purpose gluten-free baking mix: Mar. 10 2013 (oops)
• Vanilla extract: Mar. 6 2012 (double oops)
• Baking powder: Feb. 2007 (yikes!)

This kind of shows you how often I bake, right?

The only item I actually threw out was the soy milk (after taste-testing it--blech). The baking mix will continue to haunt me for another week or two because the guilt is too strong for me to throw it away right now. But would you blame me for continuing to use the baking powder and vanilla extract until they're gone? I haven't had any problems with them yet, and I am too dang cheap to just throw them away.

How do you keep track of expiration dates? 

Do I simply need to bake more often?

Are you bugged by your gluten-free limitations?

I was out to dinner with my large family of in-laws, and my father-in-law calls across the table, "Hey, Lisa, I found an article you might be interested in." This is the link he shows me on his smart phone:

National Geographic: Daily News
Cicada Recipes: Bugs Are Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Food

Blanched, boiled, or candied, cicadas are a healthy snack, experts say.

Umm...thank you?

Obviously, my father-in-law was joking (he does that a lot), but I am wondering why National Geographic--a credible magazine if there ever was one--chose to take this particular approach to the article. I mean, do they think celiacs everywhere have been saying to themselves, "You know, I really want to try cicadas, but I just don't know if they are gluten-free?" Curious, indeed.

On the flip side, I guess it always feels good to add another gluten-free snack to your list of options...right?

Have your cake, and eat it, too!

Let them eat cake!

I have been wanting to write this post for a few weeks now, and tonight I am finally getting around to it. 

Earlier this month, I turned the big 3-0. Partly because I am vain and partly because I think that it is a legitimate milestone, I was determined to do something to mark the occasion. Although I fussed over many different ideas and party themes from roughly November to March, I finally decided to keep it simple: close family and friends, pizza, salad and dessert. 

Of course, I ordered a gluten-free pizza for myself, but I was still indecisive about dessert. How could I possibly get away with serving people gluten-free birthday cake? At the same time, how could I deny myself such a quintessential part of the birthday-girl experience? Like I said, I'm vain. In the end, I decided I would have my gluten-free birthday cake, just like I wanted, but I would supply root beer floats and a more traditional dessert baked by my gracious and talented friend Stephanie for my guests. It seemed like a good plan and an easy way to appease everyone.

Was I wrong? Not exactly.

The thing is, everybody loves birthday cake--gluten-free or not. Although I warned all of my guests that the cake was gluten-free, everyone had a piece, and no one complained. In fact, I think they actually liked it, although it was different in texture and consistency than they are accustomed to. Cake is cake, right? On top of that, no one even took me up on the offer of root beer floats, and Stephanie took home her dessert untouched (she has a large extended family, so she didn't mind). Maybe they ate the cake because they were curious. Maybe they ate it because they were being polite. Or maybe Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix doesn't really taste so far different from the original version I remember from my youth. Bottom line--A cake I thought might turn out to be a disaster for me was actually as much of a success among my guests as any gluten-containing store-bought concoction would have been. 

At some point during the day--probably around the time I was looking at three or four untouched gallons of vanilla ice cream in my freezer--I realized that it was time for me to stop doing what I thought would make other people happy and start doing what makes me happy. In the end, they often work out to be the same thing--at least when you are dealing with people who love you.

It's my party, and I'll {have a double-layer gluten-free birthday cake with sprinkles on top} if I want to

Once I knew I was going to have my own Lisa-friendly, gluten-free, birthday cake, I also knew I needed to pull out all of the stops to make it as cute as possible. For me, that meant a double-layer cake with lots of frosting and cute embellishments displayed on one of my three sparkling cake stands. Although I was a little nervous about taking on a double-layer, gluten-free cake, I did it anyway.

The end result? I am very glad I did.

Initially, I was convinced the gluten-free cake would fall apart or be too crumbly to layer effectively. In fact, it was the exact opposite. The cake held together beautifully, and Stephanie said it was easier to frost than a gluten-containing cake because there were so few crumbs. At one point, we even picked up one of the two cake layers by hand and set it aside (I forgot to spread frosting between the layers). Can you even imagine doing that with a traditional cake? It would fall apart as soon as look at you.

Although I don't plan on baking another cake soon, I would definitely try the gluten-free, double-layer option again.

P.S.

If you're curious, I used two boxes of Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix (just follow the directions on the box), one container of Betty Crocker's Whipped Vanilla Frosting (next time I would buy two--all of their frosting is labeled gluten-free), and two 9x9 square backing pans to bake this cake. The sprinkles were not labeled gluten-free, but they seemed safe as they had no gluten-containing ingredients.

Get the word out!

I would like to share two pieces of photographic evidence (well, visual evidence) to illustrate the importance of letting people know you are gluten-free.

1. No Glutton for Gluten

A few weeks ago, I found this cute little article in my mailbox at school about shopping for gluten-free products in Phoenix (click on the image to go to the web edition). There was no note, but I was fairly certain it must have come from one of my celiac friends on campus. I was right--it came from my friend, Brenda, who was diagnosed with celiac disease in the last year or so.

Now, I think most of us assume people with celiac disease look out for others with the same disease--swapping recipes, recommending restaurants and products, etc. Thus, it probably doesn't surprise you that Brenda, who I have shared many gluten-free tidbits with over the past year, would pass on a helpful resource to me. The story of how she got it, however, illustrates my point (Get the word out!) quite well.

Brenda received the article from another teacher in her department who has absolutely no reason to think about gluten-free products. She simply came across the article one day, remembered that Brenda is on a strict gluten-free diet, pulled it out, and passed it on. Upon reading the article, Brenda immediately made a resolution to check out one of the gluten-free bakeries mentioned, but she never would have known the article (or the bakery) existed if she hadn't been open about her disease and her diet restrictions. 

2. A Pretty Platter of Gluten-Free Cookies

You know those awkward moments when someone gives you a gluten-containing baked good as a gift, and then they just kind of stare at you and wait for you to eat it? Well, I did not experience that on my birthday this year. Instead, I walked into my classroom, and I was greeted by this perfect platter of pretty little cookies--all of them gluten-free.

My instructional aide, Kim, who had never even heard of celiac disease until a few months ago, consulted with Brenda about the best-tasting gluten-free cookies, spent a small fortune purchasing them (undoubtedly), plated them up, and wrapped them in cellophane for the most thoughtful birthday gift I could have asked for from any coworker. She even brought doughnuts for my students so I wouldn't have to share!

Could this have happened if I hadn't taken the time to explain--in detail--what celiac disease is, how it restricts my diet, and why it I should never, ever have gluten? No, it couldn't have. If I hadn't explained celiac disease to Kim, I probably would have been greeted by a pan full of gluten-containing birthday cake, an awkward situation, and a guilty conscience.

The Takeaway (to steal a phrase from the delightful style blog, Work Your Wardrobe):

People want to help us, but they can only do that if we speak up and educate them.

Not sure how to start the conversation? Pop over to my informational page, "Celiac Disease," for some well-researched answers to a few common questions, including: What is celiac disease? What are its symptoms? and What happens if you eat gluten?