Reflections on the Gluten and Allergen Free Wellness Event in Atlanta

This week, I celebrate my gluten-free anniversary.  It was in May of 2007 when I entered into a life of gluten freedom, a journey from which I have never looked back.

Earlier this month, I had the privilege to attend the GFAF Wellness Event in Atlanta. I say privilege because I am also humbled by the companies that dedicate themselves to making product for gluten-free and allergy sensitive people. 

What I found at the expo was interesting -- I would say that maybe half the vendors were from Metro Atlanta. I remember the first expo I attended in 2008 -- there were impressive vendors from all over the U.S.. but the number of locally made products was small.

Not anymore. It's amazing the types of product you can purchase in a storefront in Metro Atlanta. And they're good products at that. I remember when no bakery made a gluten-free cupcake.  Now.....  

Look at the folks lining up for samples....

I found a couple of tasty new (to me) products at the event. 

• I am enchanted by Frannie's Gluten Free Muffins, zucchini muffins -- one of my favorite flavors.  And owner Frannie designed her own packaging. She also has a sweet and very proud Mom. One of the things I liked was her packaging -- she wraps her muffins individually, which keeps them fresher and cross-contamination free.

• Jules Dowler Shepard, a good buddy from past expos and Twitter, was also appealing to the crowd, selling her flour from her Jules Gluten Free  site.  Her product line really is great for the newly gluten free. Her afternoon demo was sponsored by Earth Balance -- who also provided some fine vegan butter-tasting popcorn!

BTW, Earth Balance^®  Vegan Buttery Sticks have been nominated for Vegetarian Times’ 2013 Foodie Awards in the category of Butter + Butter Alternatives. Polls are open until May 31, so vote now—and spread the word!

• Always a gluten-free pacesetter, Marilyn Santulli from American Gra-Frutti was serving cookies made with her new Cassava flour. Look for a future recipe here using this flour.
Her new product line, Marilyn's Artisan Crackers, which includes my favorites, the cheese dots and the graham crackers.

• PASCHA Chocolate (check out their divine website)  is about to launch its chocolate into the gf world. I tasted the 66 percent chocolate -- it was a very dense, delicious bite of chocolate. I would buy this product. 

If you missed this expo, there are events in the future as well: 

Raleigh/Durham, NC ~ August 17, 2013 ~ Durham Convention Center 10 am - 4 pm
Baton Rouge, LA ~ November 2, 2013 ~ The Cook Hotel & Conference Center at LSU10 am - 4 pm

So with that, I'd like to encourage you to support vendors who support you in your being gluten free. I think they appreciate us!

• Against The Grain Gourmet

• American Gra-Frutti

• Bakery On Main

• Blue Diamond

• Blue Ribbon Foods

• Camp Weekaneatit

• Cheenies

• Crunchies Food

• Delight Gluten Free Magazine

• Earth Balance

• Eat Perfect Foods

• Edward & Sons

• El's Kitchen

• Enjoy Life Foods

• Europa Sports

• FARE

• Food Allergy Kids of Atlanta

• Frannie's Gluten Free

• FreeCuisine.com

• Front Porch Sweets

• Full Flavor Foods

• Gluten Free Cutie

• Gluten-Free PA

• Glutino

• Graw Foods

• Happy Family Brand

• I'm A Celiac

• Juice Plus

• Jules Gluten Free

• Kinnikinnick

• Living Without Magazine

• Luce's Gluten Free Artisan Bread

• Mama Bakes Safe Cakes

• Mina's Purely Divine

• Moon Rabbit Foods

• Namaste Foods

• Noah's Pantry

• NuSkin

• PASCHA Chocolate

• Penta Water

• Pure Knead

• Reliv International

• Sally's Gluten Free Bakery

• Simply Gluten Free Magazine

• Smooze

• Sugar & Spice Market

• Surf Sweets

• Taste of Gluten Free

• Triumph Dining

• Udi's Gluten Free Foods

• Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint

• Virtuous Living

• Wayfare

 

Much love, and many thanks!

Ging

Would you like (#gf cajun death) FRIES with that? A Review of @Riego products.

Product Review for Riega Products:

Sometimes it takes a while for me to sample things.  After I tried all these wonderful gluten-free sauces, though, I found a novel use for the Pepper Jack Sauce.  I wanted to share this recipe with you. I think these sauces are all great, and I've used some for several years. I shared many of my samples with my friend Doug who is newly gluten free.  I hope he enjoys them as much as I do.

This is a food truck dish.  My husband lives for the food trucks in Atlanta on Wednesday, but I rarely partake because I am gluten free and can't risk cross contamination. It is made by the Rouxd Food Krewe Truck

.

Here it is:

Pork Belly Death Fries $6

Handcut cajun fries topped with crispy pork belly, pepperjack cheese sauce, pickled jalapenos, and chicharones  They look something like this (from Google Images).

So when he mentioned a dish he saw called Cajun Death Fries, I was intrigued. And I was pretty sure I could do something similar.

It was cajun fried, topped with pork belly, topped with pepper jack sauce, then topped with pork rinds.

So, I took a package of the Pepper Jack sauce and followed the instructions by adding margarine and almond milk.  I made a sauce in the pan with this, then added about a half cup of shredded Cabot Light Pepper Jack Cheese (which was also provided for review.  Yum, but more on that).

Perfection!

Cajun Death Fries

Organic, Gluten Free, Not Healthy. Delicious

1 pound small firm potatoes, boiled and cubed.  I kept on the skin. You can deep fry til crispy if you want, but I didn't. I don't fry much.

1/2 stick butter (or your preferred butter product)

Good cajun seasoning (I used Penzeys Cajun amd Arizona Dreaming).

1/4 pound smoked pork belly, cubed (yes, I had this in my freezer).

The Pepper Jack cheese sauce as mentioned above

1/4 cup Crushed pork rinds (we were out, but I could see how this would be great). 

In a pan, I made a layer of chopped potatoes, butter, seasoning, and salt and black pepper. If you're a spicy fan, add red pepper flakes. Broil for 10 minutes until top of cooked potatoes are very crispy.

Chop the pork belly into cubes and sprinkle on top.  If you don't have it, but side meat (it's pork belly) cubed pancetta, or plain on bacon, and cube then add.  Broil until crispy (about 10-15 minutes).

Make sauce as described above. Add spicer or milder cheese as you choose.

Spread on top and broil.

Add pork rinds and do the same for about one minute more.

If I were doing this for myself, at this point I would have added chopped green onions, and maybe some chopped tomatoes. But since the hubs hates those, I didn't. And I didn't think about jalepenos...

Would I make this often? No. Was it delectable? Absolutely.  Did I get a great gluten-free dinner from it? Oh yeah.

Riega also sent me their new flatbreads, called Les Pains des Fleurs Crispbreads.

Because I can't eat some grains (like large portions of Quinoa and Buckwheat) I shared these with others, but I did try the Chestnut.

Two words: Crostata base

I am always tired of people making great crostata recipes, but now I think I can do anything with these. They are delicious. They warm nicely.  And topped with Ina Garten's recipe for Tapenade, they are rock star solid awesome. I also like them with American Gra-Frutti's Spicy Peachtree Pimento.

Much love, and two YUMS UP!

Ging

Five years

FIVE YEARS

On August 1, 2007, I wrote my first post on this blog, which I called Gluten-Free in Georgia and Florida.  Well, I left out the appropriate hyphen, but I digress...

Every year on the anniversary of this blog -- now Gluten Free in Georgia, Finally -- I do a little retrospection. A little introspection.  And a little, well, projection.  After all, this is what anniversary date are all about.

So today I am writing to point out the 5 gluten-free products or moments this year that have impressed me.  

1.  We are here! We are here!  We are here! 

The entire 1 in 133 movement, the growth of assertive advocacy, the rise of real role models -- all that has happened this year. Yes, it's still a struggle, yes we still have to advocate and educate, and yes, one must always be on one's toes....but wow, how things have changed in five years.

2. Elizabeth Barbone.  She's in a class by herself, my friend Elizabeth. She has become a dear friend in the last two years, but more importantly, she is rising to the top of the field in gluten-free baking and cooking.  I am most amazed by her recipe for doughnuts in her new book

 as well as her bread recipe my first exposure to her brilliance.  Her enthusiasm, her love for being gluten-free and eating well, her sense of humor, her donuts, did I mention her donuts?  And most of all, her weekly Serious Eats Gluten-Free Recipe.  She's amazing. 

3. Five years ago, there was no packaged gluten-free bread worth eating.  

And now there is.

Seriously.  Two stellar highlights this year -- we have magnificent options, including Rudi's Gluten-Free Tortillas, and the delicious Soft Kinnikinnck bread and buns.  In fact, the bread world has become normal -- regular -- like old time.  I applaud these companies for their dedication to us, but more importantly, I can now do simple things like take a sandwich for lunch or make garlic bread or burritos. 

4. I'm blessed to know gluten-free business women I can call on when I need something for a special event.  

And I'm happy to call them friends.My stalwart friends:

Shelley Ritchie at Moondance (one of my first GF friends, my Home Girl, baker of the best brownies evcr!)

Jill Brack at Glow Gluten Free -- still my favorite gingersnap!  And Jill -- mwah!

Marilyn Santulli at American Gra-Frutti  Love you Mia!

Lorna Shafir at Kettle Cuisine -- sad they had to stop the store line, but what an awesome woman and company.

Marion from Pamela's Products.....awesome-sauce!

Heather Collins from Think Thin Products

and my personal angels/sisters

Lori Pocock

and 

Janet Richardson

What's cool is all of these women have been in my gluten-free life since I had to make the change.  I am blessed by this fact. I'm just sad I haven't seen much of some of them lately -- I don't get to vendor fairs and conference much any more.

That is because.....

5.  This year, I realized that being gluten-free is no longer the hardest thing in my life.  
In fact, it's the easiest part of my life to control nowadays.I think our community has made this happen. Good work and great products means being gluten-free is almost pedestrian. Admittedly, we must still be diligent. Admittedly, I won't be cavalier about anything.  Etc.  But I feel at home in my gluten-free world.

 Because now, my focus is continuing to see and continuing to live. My body is being ravaged by the side effects of methotrexate, prednisone, diabetes, and most of all, Giant Cell Arteritis-- it's been a tough, two-year fight.  I now have thyroid disease, and I also have anemia, and oh yeah, that common splotch of skin cancer on my head (yes, I know it's baby cancer -- but I will have an awful scar...).

That is why FIVE MONTHS  from today, on Jan. 1, 2013, I anticipate beginning retirement on disability.  See, when trying to get well IS your job, it's impossible to DO your job.  I appreciate your kind thoughts, prayers, karma, etc. as I work through these months (which includes the Oct. 1 deadline for application).

This also means I've drawn closer to the gluten-free world I'm closest too, and farther from the colloquial side. So yeah, I'm more distant. But it doesn't mean I'm not thinking about you. I've learned a lot with this awful chronic autoimmune Central Nervous System disorder....

Five years ago I threw myself into this world, this blog, to Twitter, to the support group thing.  It was good until it was impossible, so now I do as much as I can do without throwing all my spoons into the wind (read The Spoon Theory if you don't get this.)

The one thing I've struggled with this past year is the profound desire to make it to the new year -- be it blog year, or January. I'll hope you'll come with me.

Cue Barry Manilow...looks like we made it.

Here's to the future, whatever it holds.

And thanks for reading....

Much love,
Ging