Betty Crocker - Devil's Food Cake

One word - DELICIOUS.

A few more words --- This tastes just like I remember. You need very few ingredients, although, it's tough to see just how much butter goes in here! We also made a homemade buttercream (bag of confectionary sugar, more butter, vanilla, a bit of milk) and it turned out great! Super moist, flavorful, not crumbly or dry. WOW - I'm impressed Betty Crocker. 

I still need to try the cookies, brownies and vanilla cake -- all of which I've read mixed reviews.

Kinnikinnick now in Stop & Shop

Hey All!

I have a lot to write about & update... but first - I just saw online that Kinnikinnick, one of my favorite gluten free brands, is now being sold in 375 Stop & Shop stores and 180 Giant stores! These are mainly all on the east coast, specifically, northern east coast - so good news for those in that area!

Here is the Kinnik blog post about it.

Happy Monday - mainly because it's a short week, so really, it's Tuesday! ;)

Look what I found!

I have been keeping an eye out in every grocery store I've been in the last few weeks. I also asked my local grocery store to see if they could stock these, but knew it was a long shot.

But I was up on the North Shore this weekend in one of my FAVORITE grocery stores, and sure enough - they had the WHOLE LINE! I was skipping around the grocery store. Ha. 

The thing is - I am on a bit of a diet, have no real events coming up, and can't even decide which one to make first.... I'll figure it out, and then I'll be sure to post & review. I HOPE they're as good as I've heard.

** apologies - cell phone pic. what is the deal with blackberry, can't they put better cameras in their phones?

Mozzarelli's - not good.

I am soooo disappointed in Mozzarelli's pizza! Ugh.... it was NOT good. Not only was it not good, it was $33 for a pizza with two toppings - that is ridiculous. 

So - the weekend was fabulous. Had a blast at my friends shower and bachelorette -- we were staying in Union Square in NYC, and had apps at Olives. My plan was to get a pizza before that, but I called at 8:30pm to order the pizza, and apparently they closed at 8. SO - what did I do? I ordered a pizza for 'breakfast' on Sunday -- which worked out, because the girls had two enormous bags of delicious NY bagels delivered to our room... sigh (although, i had some gf bread and I had some yummy scallion cream cheese -- why is cream cheese SO good in ny?).

Anyway.... they delivered my pizza (after some serious issues with them not understanding where the W hotel was) and I was SO excited -- I got goat cheese & spinach on it - I sunk my teeth in, and I immediately tasted that gross weird gluten free taste - What is that?!?! It tastes like soap or something. I almost cried. But I toughed it out and ate a piece, tried to add some more goat cheese from another slice, covered it in garlic salt, and pretended I didn't taste the soapiness.

I'm not sure if I was more upset over the price, or the fact that I had heard such great things and I found it un-eatable. I even brought back the leftovers hoping it would taste better cold. Nope. Worse. Just tried it and had to throw it out!

Can someone please tell me what that taste is so I can try to avoid it in the future? It must be one of the flours, I can't pinpoint which one though.

Another Bridal weekend...

This weekend is one of my best friends bridal shower/bachelorette weekend in NYC! So I'm heading back to NY tomorrow (Brooklyn Friday, then Long Island Saturday morning, then into NYC Saturday night!)

It's going to be SO FUN - and as always, I'm planning ahead about FOOD. Friday will be fine - Saturday for the shower I have no idea what they're serving, so I'm bringing some backups. Then, we are staying at the W on Saturday night in Union Square which just so happens to be 5 blocks from Mozzarelli's!!! I'm psyched. I am either going to walk over there or have a pizza & some pasta delivered before we go out - because we're all going to Olives for apps, then out. And sadly, as much as I love Olives, I cannot eat anything on the menu they have planned for us. But who cares when you have PIZZA?!

Anyway - I'm excited. I'm sorry I have been away - work is so busy right now, I'm in super-planning mode for my own wedding, and I feel like 20 million things are all happening at once.

I will update when I get back about Mozzarelli's AND - my FABULOUS bridal shower that my sister threw for me last weekend!!

WEEKEND

I have a busy weekend ahead, and I'm finding it hard to get through the day - despite the fact that I have a TON of work to do.

Tonight I'm going to a Pilates class after work - then to see that movie The Hangover, which looks hilarious, with some friends. Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Brooklyn bright & early to hang with my friend Jo and chill out at her Stoop Sale - I'm bringing gluten free beer for the event... I'll share pics on Monday.

Then Sunday my Sister and Mom are throwing me a bridal shower! I have two - and this is the first one and I'm really excited about it! My sister also has Celiac so I'm sure she'll have some delicious things for us to eat! I'll also be sure to share that with you!

Hope you have a FANTASTIC weekend! I know Liz (The Good Eatah) and Jill (Hey That Taste's Good) will - I think they are both getting married this weekend! CONGRATS!!

Free Lettuce Wraps at PF CHangs!

Hi all... just saw this online & thought I'd share.

Go here:  http://www.pfchangs.com/briny/  fill in your email, and they will automatically send you a coupon for free lettuce wraps..., offer expires June 14 -- so go now if you love PF Chang's lettuce wraps... 

Party Preparedness

We had a couple family parties to attend this weekend and I snapped this pic on my phone before heading out of what it's like to be "party-ready" while living gluten free and having social events to attend.

I was sure to bring my 6-pack of Redbridge to my future brother-in-law's surprise 40th of course. We went there in the afternoon and were staying overnight and the next day driving out to Western MA for my cousin's graduation party.

While eating breakfast on Saturday morning I realized I would have two meals ahead of me that day and I was unsure if there would be any food (since the party was being catered) - so I made this large container of pasta salad with:

Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta

Cherry Tomatoes

Celery

Carrots

Feta Cheese

Ken's Italian Dressing

It was pretty good, and it did the trick. Sure enough, I had half for lunch, and the other half for dinner (dinner looked great, but it was rolls, macaroni salad, marinated grilled chicken, and steak tips). In that Trader Joe's in the background there is also a package of rice cakes, some Pirate's Booty, and a little baggie of TJ's Meringues. It kept me full late, and I was able to stay up and play poker with the boys.

Also pictured there is a Trader Joe's Gluten Free/Dairy Free English Muffin (that I wrote about a few weeks ago) which was perfect to have for breakfast the next morning.

So yeah. I travel with large quantities of food. At this point though - I'm fine with it. People get it -- I get extremely cranky if I can't eat, so this just solves all problems. There are no let-downs when someone doesn't have anything to feed you, and there is no fear of not having any carbs in sight when a night of drinking is on the agenda.

Do you all do this as well? What's your go-to food to bring on the road?