Eating Out is Risky

I've been eating at home now for about five months, eating out so rarely that I've had very few incidents of glutening.

But Saturday night, I had the mother of all glutening. In addition to all the gastric distress, headache, aches, you GF friends know, I got a rash this time. A big one. It hit my feet, hands, arms and knees. I am still itching from it. It has made me blisterty and scraped all over, and it's really kind of nasty. I feel like a puppy dog with fleas.

From a GF standpoint (as this is a blog about GF issues) though, the big problem with my being glutened was -- it was at a restaurant with a dedicated GF menu! A GFRAP association place. I got glutened (again) at PF Chang's.

I wrote them a strongly worded email (twice in six months) and explains my horror that this could happen. I would understand it at Ruby Tuesday's (which doesn't try) or Applebees, but Chang's? Dedicated GF menu. CLUELESS kitchen? Waitstaff? I don't know.

What did surprise me was that I got both an email and a phone call from the store's lead management. He promised me a letter to tell me what he was going to do at the store. And he offered me a refund. I thought that was nice. I didn't want that, mind you, but he did offer me what I DID want most -- a promise he'd work on the kitchen at the Tampa PF Chang's. If it helps ONE person....you know.

But it got me thinking: When we get glutened by a GF Menu, is anything safe? I don't hardly know what to trust.

I don't know how to feel right now. We're on the road next week for 11 days, and I'll be away from my GF kitchen. I'm truly scared of how I'm going to feel. Right now, I feel horrible.

On the cookie front: I was really wanting some holiday cookies, and I found some decent GF offerings in Tampa. Pamela's Anise Almond and Chocolate Biscotti are wonderful. I could see easily dipping them in some chocolate to make them more festive, but the anise ones tasted like those my Dad and Mama used to make. And Enjoy Life Snickerdoodles! Not my Mama's recipe, but a lovely cinnamon flavor. I loved them! They could be wonderful warmed up for company with some ice cream.

If I don't blog in the next couple days, it's because we're in Bloomington, Indiana at the Kinsey (yes THAT Kinsey) institute library doing research. Randy has found a GF Pizza Place in Bloomington, and we're staying at a B&B that knows what GF means. It's a start...

Happy week.
Much love, Ging