Engagement Party

Saturday we hosted our friends to celebrate our engagement. The party was wonderful. I love entertaining, having a home full of people I love. To make a relationship succeed through the good and bad, I think you have to have a support system of friends and family. It is a blessing to have wonderful friends in our lives, in our life together. I look forward to our next get-together, whether it be a large group or one-on-one.

We wanted to keep this party simple, so we ordered a Boar's Head meat tray from Publix. On the side, I fixed spinach dip, guac, and goat cheese/sun-dried tomato crostini. Kristy brought her signature pizza dip (oh so so SO good) and Melissa brought a black bean dip that received rave reviews. On the sweet side, we had a m&m bowl, chocolate covered pretzels (not GF), cupcakes, and some chocolate-pretzel-pecan creations by Kristin that also got tons of complements. So much for keeping it simple. If you come to our house, we will feed you. Well.

The spinach dip is a bit funny- it takes an obscene amount of spinach to make a small dip. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for it (the recipe is here). As for the goat cheese crostini, I used rice crackers instead of bread. The crackers did get a bit soggy under the cheese, but nobody seemed to mind. The crostini disappeared quickly. Next time I might try to cut some GF bread into squares. Read on for the easiest recipe ever.

Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato "Crostini"
Ingredients
Goat Cheese log
Sun Dried Tomatoes
GF Base - rice crackers, bread, etc.

Take your cold goat cheese, and mold a dab of it onto the base. I found it much easier to use my (clean) fingers than to use a spreading knife. The pressure from the knife broke a lot of crackers and left flakes, while my fingers made a smooth finish. Next, add the sun dried tomato pieces. Enjoy!

I served mine on a shallow chip tray (I ran out of big flat serving things). To even the surface I used candle-scaping rocks, but you could also use dried beans or peas.

Snow-pocalypse

Even if you don't live in Atlanta, you heard about the snow fall that shut down Atlanta for the last 4 or so days. A few of those days were while my sister was here visiting from New Jersey. The unfortunate part of her week here for me was going back to work. My sister and Nick drove me through the ice and snow to work on Monday night for my shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Work was housing the staff and feeding them. Nick and my sister came back to have some quality bonding time.

My first night I spent on a newly refurbished wing, on a cot. Since the floor was not open for patients, our staff turned it into a quiet dormitory. I packed enough GF food for two days, knowing our caf wasn't going to live up to my GF/Soy-free needs. That first night was quiet, in my lonely room. I knew I was at work. On the floor in the morning, you could see the exhaustion and stress written across the weekend staff's faces. They hadn't left work since Sunday, and some of them had worked since Saturday. I made the day go by quickly by staying busy; everything seemed to move at a dream-like pace.

After my first shift, I got to sleep on a pull-out sofa in one of the family housing apartments. I've slept on many a sleeper sofa, but had never has slept on one where you could feel the metal mesh framing by resting a hand on the bed. Despite that, I slept more soundly, as the apartment felt less like a hospital. I sat down to a bowl of GF pasta at 8pm as my roomies for the night drifted off to sleep in the bedroom. (I guess it was good that I was sleeping in the living room/kitchen!) I was pissed that one of my roomates was up at 4 am clattering around in my portion of the apartment making breakfast, but I got over it.

The weekend staff got to go home, for the most part. Some of the nurses working their third and fourth shifts looked like zombies. Even though I was only there two nights, I too was beginning to loose track of time and place. I painted a few nurse's nails at the nurse's station for fun; two of the OT's made a list and made a Publix run for us. (They could come and go as they were able.) We floated across time again. I waited all day for Nick to come back to work and whisk me away. All I wanted was time with my sister, my pack (Nick and the dogs), fresh food, my bed. When 7 rolled around, I ran out to Nick's car as fast as possible.

When I came home, my sister had taken over the world as I knew it. She had installed Windows 7 on the computers, created a wireless network with my new router, updated the computers (thus bringing us out of the stone age), burned DVDs, cleaned out the spice cabinet, pared down the lid-less tupperware, re-organized the pot and pan cabinet, cooked chili, cooked beans, cooked prok, made various meals in my abscence, and had a meal hot, fresh, and ready when I wandered in. I am sure I am missing a few of her accomplishments. In a weird way, my two days and nights seemed like one long day.

Today I took my sister to the Buford Highway Farmer's Market. The roads were thankfully very manageable.She could have spent hours in there, but managed to pare her visit down to 1 hour and 5 bags full of peppers, cooking mixes, and a few exotic spices. We ate sashimi and Pop chips in the car before heading to the airport. Our visit, though strangely arranged in time, as so great. I don't get to see her very often, but nothing can break the bonds of sistership. The next time I'll see her will be for the wedding!

Today Nick is cooking the cornish hens he bought at Kroger on Monday, testing out the fresh fallen snow. I am so glad to be home, to have a home-cooked meal. Tomorrow night, after we devour some of the leftovers, we'll have to start piling the freezer full of deliciousness.

Blue Moon Pizza

Nick and I's first dinner in 2011 was Blue Moon Pizza. Nick needed to fulfill a pizza craving, and I needed to try another GF pizza. We drove over to the Smyrna location and sat at one of the high boy tables. Everything on their menu (except steak) can be made into a personal sized GF pizza. Although the GF pizzas only come in personal size, the personal size is 8". There are quite a few interesting choices, such as Thai Chicken, Bacon Cheeseburger, and Santa Fe. Blue Moon also has GF beer and cider on their adult beverage menu.

Nick ordered us GF brushetta. The bread portion was phenomenal. The topping was much to vinegary for my taste. Maybe brushetta is supposed to be tomatoes and onions bathed in an ocean of balsamic. I've never had brushetta before, since that particular food trend occurred after my conversion to GF. I've never been curious enough to buy a jar of brushetta and sample it on bread.

I kept my pie traditional and ordered a Greek pizza, heavy sauce, light on the house cheese. My pizza had a soft thin crust. The more GF pizza I eat, the more I realize that it's harder to make a GF thick crust (the issue being rising). I really loved it. The fresh basil leaves were a tad hard to bite through; I kept pulling off the basil when I bit into the slice. I ate until I was stuffed, and still had 2 more pieces for breakfast.

Conclusion: I'll be back for more!

Betty Crocker

I don't know when it happened, but Betty Crocker took the soy out of their cake mix! For people like me who are super sensitive to gluten and anything chemically similar (i.e., secondary grains like soy). For New Year's Eve, I baked some of Betty's GF cupcakes. Instead of making my usual butter cream icing, I used Pamela's icing mix. Both items turned out really well. The Betty's had a very very slight GF texture, but the taste was amazing. To me, this is the best yellow cake mix-in-the-box that I have tried thus far. For whatever reason, the chocolate boxes turn out smoother and other yellow cake brands grainier.

The Pamela's icing was so soooo good! It was smooth and creamy- better than mine! It also wasn't overly sugar-sweet, which I prefer.

My cupcakes got lots of complements from the gluten-eaters at the party, which always means a lot to me. I am really excited that us GF-ers have more options for GF desserts. Go try some!

My Birthday!

I've been so busy with wedding plans and Christmas prepping that I forgot to write about my amazing birthday! I decided to follow in the footsteps of last year and have a taco dinner. This year, we hit up Pure Taqueria for deliciousness.

Pure was packed and noisy with the groups of Friday nighters celebrating the end of another week. We had a table along the back wall by the kitchen; I enjoyed keeping an eye on the goings-on in the restaurant. We ordered a pitcher of margaritas to start while we perused the menu. Believe it or not, the GF menu is much larger than vegetarian menu! I ordered the carne asada tacos. They were amazing!

After dinner we walked across the street to Dad's Garage improv theater. I've just completed my first level of improv classes. Our homework is always to see shows so we can learn how what we learn is applied live on stage. We opted for the Dr. Frapples show, which was hilarious! If you've been meaning to go see some live comedy, go take the plunge at Dad's.

Disney's Magic

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Nick and I made a trip to Animal Kingdom. I had looked over Disney's website the week before to review places we could eat at. Not only does Disney post the estimated cost of each restaurant, but they also recommend restaurants in each park that are allergen friendly. They ask that you notify places with reservations early (good idea). They are all about making your stay amazing. We made plans to eat at the Restaurantosaurus. (Incredibly fun name, I know!)

Once Nick and I were in the park and had decided to take a break from traveling through Africa and Asia, we mosied on over to the Restaurantosaurus. When we walked in, I asked the hostess how I could have my food allergy needs met. She explained the process like this: "I will press a magic button, and one of our managers will magically appear. He will give you the magic allergen-free menu, and you can choose whatever you woud like. Then we will serve it to you right here." The process was just as magical as she described. I had quite a few choices, burgers with GF buns, GF mac and cheese, chicken tenders, and a few others. I chose chicken tenders, and let the magic unfold.

I had not eaten a chicken tender in 7 years. I'd written them off, really. Breaded fried meat? I'd live without it just fine. But oh! The Disney magic GF chicken tender was magnificent. They were crispy breaded on the outside and hot meat on the inside. They were mouth-watering. I ate three of the large tenders and was full. I sacrificed myself for the fourth one. Nick even said that the breading was just right- not too exessive like on many glutinous tenders. I was in heaven. Amazing food experience in a magical place with a fun name. Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Rice Nog

My shopping trip in Whole Foods was moving in a blur a few weeks ago. I just tossed things in my cart that I needed, hoping to be in and out. Fast. Time froze for a second in the Rice Milk Aisle when I came across the Rice Nog. I tilted my head to the right and thought "Do I like egg nog?" I realized the liking was immaterial. I was being presented with an opportunity to try a completely absurd GF beverage. The better question was "Why wouldn't I love this?" I tossed it in the cart.

The rice nog sat for a few weeks on my kitchen counter. It was going to be disgusting, I just knew it. I refuse to drink rice milk by the glass, so why would anyone want a glass of holiday flavored rice milk? (Well they wouldn't, naturally.) When we packed up some GF goodness to tote down to Florida for Christmas, I stuck my Rice Nog in the bag. I thought it would be entertaining to make everyone try it and see their reactions to its strange flavor.

While in Florida, I had forgotten about my liquid novelty. The day after Christmas morning, I remembered it just in time for breakfast. I made Nick's parents and grandmother try it with me. Much to my dismay, the Rice Nog was awesome. It had a creamy texture uncannily like milk, with hints of holiday flavors (cinnamon, nutmeg). Not only was it great by the glass, the Rice Nog was also amazing in coffee. The joke was on me.

I am heart broken that Whole Foods was out of the Rice Nog last week. I really want more! I might have to see if I can make some.