Penguin Pizza - Boston

This past weekend Mike and I went to the MFA in Boston for an assignment I had to do for school. Mike went to Northeastern which is right next to the MFA so he's spent a fair amount of time at the bars restaurants in the area. By far, one of his favorites is Penguin Pizza. I think he likes it more for the beer than the pizza, but that's besides the point. I had been to Penguin Pizza before but they didn't have gluten free last time I went. I called just to make sure - turns out they have gluten free dough now! We walked our way over there and got a cute little table in the corner. WARNING: no matter what season it it, it will be very hot inside. We ended up getting the traditional pepperoni and the Aegean pizzas, both on gluten free crust. To be honest, the crust was OK. It almost seemed like it needs to be pre-cooked before the toppings were put on because it seemed a little too doughy for me. It wasn't horrible though, as evidenced by the fact that we ate every last piece of both pizzas. It had good flavor and was about 10" big. We were pretty hungry so we got two, but one was way too big for just me. On a not starving day, we would have been fine with just one split between the two of us. I forgot to take pictures, but they wouldn't have shown much anyways because they put so many delicious toppings on that you can't even see the crust! 

Another plus, they had a couple different kinds of hard cider and I think two gluten fee beers. 

After pizza we were off to see our sweet friends Kim and Jan whom we hadn't seen in forever! The perfect treat to end a great night :)

Give it a try and let me know what you think! 

Gluten Free Bread - The good, the bad and the ugly.

Hi Everyone! 

I'm going to do a little review of a few gluten free breads I have tried. I live in Boston where glutie's seem to have it made pretty well. That being said, you may not being able to find all of these at your local grocery store, but likely at a natural foods store. I'll be reviewing Three Bakers - Seven Ancient Grains, Udi's - White Sandwich Bread, Udi's - Whole Grain Bread, Schar - Classic White Bread, King Arthur - Gluten Free Bread Mix, and Rudi's - Gluten Free Classic Sandwich Bread.

Three Bakers:
This is the best bread I've had yet. I tried it once because my grocery store was out of my old staple, Udi's. Best mistake ever! This bread is much heartier than Udi's. It does not crumble as you eat your sandwich and has much more flavor. I like the Seven Ancient Grains because I'm a whole wheat kind of girl, but their classic white sandwich bread has great flavor and texture too. It seems to be a little more expensive than Udi's at my grocery store, but worth the extra 50 cents!

Udi's - White Sandwich Bread and Whole Grain Bread:
If your grocery store only has one kind of gluten free bread, it is probably this one. This used to be my go-to until I discovered Three Bakers. They are both good. The whole grain is a little heartier, which I like. The white bread tends to be a little drier I think. The drier consistency is great for one thing - breadcrumbs! I always make breadcrumbs out of the two end pieces, put them in a Tupperware and into the fridge so they're always there when I need them.

Schar - Classic White Bread:

This bread is nice because it isn't frozen. However, it is very dry. I just saw on the website that they have a new recipe so maybe the new recipe is less dry. While I was in Italy, this was the only kind of gluten free bread I could find. Schar does make a lot of other bread products that are very good, but I don't particularly like their sandwich bread. Their dinner rolls are very good as well as their baguette. You pop them in the oven for a few minutes and their warm, soft and fluffy. 

King Arthur - Gluten Free Bread Mix:

This bread mix is delicious. It is a mix, so you have to make it yourself but let me tell you, if you have the time it is so worth it. This is a plain mix so you could add your own flavors if you wanted to spice it up a little bit. If you slice it up once it cools you can put it in the freezer and it will keep for longer. The texture of this bread is just wonderful. It is much more moist than the pre-made breads and has great flavor. It only takes a few ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen! 

Rudi's - Gluten Free Classic Sandwich Bread: 

To be completely honest, I don't like this bread very much. I've given it a few fair tries because it seems to be easy to find and in a lot of grocery stores but I'm not exactly sure why! It is very dry and I would almost rather eat my sandwich has a lettuce wrap than on this bread. I haven't tried all the different kinds so I can't speak to all of them, but I wasn't a big fan of the class sandwich bread. 

Ginger Exchange - Thai food in Boston

Last night my good friend Sam and I had a little bit of a girls night, complete with Thai food take-out and red wine. Gluten free Thai food can be a little dicey, unless you go to Ginger Exchange or have Ginger Exchange delivered right to your front door. We have always gone to or ordered from their Cambridge location, but it looks like they have a new location in Boston! Their menu indicates everything that is gluten free, including all sushi except things with eel, crabstick, eel sauce or tempura. They also give you packets of gluten free soy sauce! Their sushi is always fresh. The fish seems to melt in your mouth. If you sit at the bar inside you can watch them make it right in front of you. Some of our favorites rolls are the eastern keys, spicy tuna, salmon avocado, mount fuji (NOT gluten free), and over the rainbow. They have a lot of rolls that look great that do not seem to be gluten free. I have not tried asking them to make the roll without tempura; maybe worth a try!

They also have delicious gluten free pad thai. Every so often I get a craving for pad thai and this is always my go-to!

Let me know what you think if you happen to go! 

Pillsbury Gluten Free Products

Pillsbury recently came out with three gluten free products. You can see them all here. They have a pizza crust, pie/pastry crust and chocolate chip cookie dough. All are pre-made refrigerated items so you can find them in your grocery store with the other refrigerated cookie dough products. My local grocery store had only the pizza crust, so I got that a few weeks ago. The crust was definitely a thin crust pizza. It was a little bit dense and chewy for me. While I know I'll never again get that tear-it-apart, fluffy pizza crust that is full of gluten, the pillsbury dough wasn't the best substitute. I've tried many other gluten free pizza crusts on the market and would prefer the Against the Grain crust or the Namaste crust over pillsbury. Against the grain is already prepared, the Namaste needs a little preparation. 

We went to a different grocery store this weekend and to my surprise they had the pie crust and the cookie dough. Perfect timing as Mike and I had just gone apple picking so I could try the crust out with an apple pie! I used this Dutch Apple Pie recipe from Ali over at Jam Hands. I substituted King Arthur gluten free flour for the flour in the filing as well as the flour in the topping. I followed the directions on the pie crust packaging for the crust. While the crust was not light and flakey like your ideal pie crust, it is pretty darn good for gluten-free! I used to use the whole foods frozen pie crusts, but found that they were usually cracked in the bottom or were not quite done when the filling/pie were done. The pillsbury crust came out great! I make a lot of pecan pies during the holiday season so I will try it again for the first pecan pie of the year!

Dutch Apple Pie with Pillsbury Crust

While studying I needed a little "brain food," or I just needed an excuse to feed my sweet tooth and remembered I got the Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough! This cookie dough is great because it is in a plastic container so you don't have to use the whole thing at once. The cookies take 10-12 minutes to cook, one minute to cool and about 5 seconds to enjoy. These cookies were great! I used to love to Tollhouse container of pre-made cookie dough and these are just about as good. They are soft with delicious sweet flavor that is not fake tasting. Great job, Pillsbury!

Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free in Italy

This past August we traveled to Italy for a vacation. Before we left, people kept asking me what I was going to eat in Italy because "all they eat there is pizza and pasta!" I did a little research before hand so I wouldn't be totally unprepared, however it ended up being more and more frustrating to find good, gluten-free things to eat at a reasonable price. We traveled to three cities, Rome, Florence and Venice, so I'll write about some of the up's and down's of this gluten-free adventure. 

Rome/Roma

We inadvertently made the mistake of getting the best gluten-free pizza on our very first day in Rome. We found this place online Voglia di Pizza located at Via dei Giubbonari 33. It was pretty easy to find. We had the Margherita pizza and the cheese with salami. Both were delicious. The crust was similar to what I remember about gluten-full pizza. Here is a picture of me devouring my pizza. 

We also went to Cantina e Cucina at Via dei Governo Vecchio 87. Via dei Governo Vecchio was recommended to us for its numerous wonderful restaurants. Cantina e Cucina  happened to have gluten-free pasta, so we tried it out. Both of our pasta dishes were wonderful. The pasta seemed a little bit al dente to me but I think that's just the Italian way. Do as the Romans do. 

Florence/Firenze

In Florence we had a nice dinner at Osteria Dell'Agnolo. Very cute little place very close to the duomo. We sat outside. They had gluten-free pasta that was very good. I forgot to take pictures, but trust me, it was good!

We were told to go to Pizza Man for delicious gluten-free pizza. We found our way there one day to get pizza for lunch but they said "no, not yet." Apparently they don't have it during the day, but maybe if you go for dinner you'll get to try it! One of our tour guides with a gluten allergy himself said it was very good. 

We went to a more expensive, nice dinner one night at The Golden View. Great atmosphere with wonderful views of the river. They gave us a glass of prosecco when we got there and were very accommodating and understanding of gluten allergies. I had the Pesce Spadda Alla Siciliana. It was very delicious. They even brought us gluten free crackers instead of bread. 

One day we went on a day trip with Alessandro Cammilli (who I highly recommend) to Tuscany. We stopped at one of Dario Cecchini's restaurants called Dario Doc in Chianti. Cecchini is one of the most respected butchers in Italy and maybe even the world. They have about four different red meat dishes on the menu with differing prices. We all got the Super Dario. It was naturally gluten free and DELICOUS. The meat was some of the best red meat I have ever had. If you have a chance, stop by between 12 and 3 and you'll have a delicious lunch!

Venice/Venezia

In Venice we had lunch at Osteria Antico Dolo at Ruga Rialto 778. They had wonderful gluten free pasta and the service was great. They even let us use their phone to locate an ATM. 

We also had lunch at Ristobar San Polo at San Polo 2024. They had gluten free pasta that was very good and a delicious gluten free desert of some sort of fried custard with chocolate on top. It was so good that we said we would come back for dinner. We showed up for dinner and it was closed which was unfortunate. I'm not sure if it is always closed for dinner. The picture of the desert isn't that great, but trust me it was delicious!

That is just about all I have to report from Italy! They do have gluten-free bread in some grocery stores. If you ask for Senza Glutine they may have a whole section. It is like the brand Schar. Hope this helps with anyone's gluten-free travels to Italy!

Start here...

Hi All! 

Welcome to the blog, Glutie and the Beast. I'm so happy you stopped by! On this blog I'll be chronicling the adventures and mis-adventures of following a gluten-free diet with a boyfriend who can eat all the gluten he wants. We live just outside Boston so I'll write about some restaurants in and around Boston. We cook at home most of the time so I'll write about any recipes I try that come out great. We travel just about every weekend so I'll write about any new places we visit and where the glutie was able to eat. I'm sure I'll throw in tidbits about our general lives here and there as well. Feel free to ask any questions or make any comments! 

xoxo
Glutie and the Beast