News & Notes: January 29, 2010

Before I get to the week's news, I wanted to suggest the possibility of a meet-up among local Gluten Free Philly readers to take place in late February or sometime in March. I'm thinking Latin-influenced Casona in Collingswood, New Jersey, with its extensive gluten-free menus for adults and children (they can prepare a gluten-free "Cuban pizza"), would be a good spot for a weeknight dinner. If you are interested in attending, please complete a short survey through this SurveyMonkey link by Tuesday, February 9. If there's enough interest, I'll work with the restaurant to figure out the best date and announce details on the site.

Belated congratulations go out to reader Julie, who was the winner of the recent Goodies Giveaway prize - a Triumph Dining Gluten-Free Grocery Guide.

On Monday, I posted a review of the new Sweet Freedom Bakery in Philadelphia, which bakes a variety of allergen-free cakes, cookies and other sweets.

California Cafe, serving West Coast-style fare at the Plaza in King of Prussia, offers menu items that are, or can be made, gluten free.

Capt'n Chucky's Crab Cake Co. now makes a gluten-free version of their renowned Smith Island Crab Cake. The Newtown Square company (5159 West Chester Pike, 610-355-7525) uses corn meal as a binder. The crab cakes are sold frozen by the six-pack at $5.50 per cake. Hat tip to reader Kathy.

Tortilla Press Cantina in Pennsauken is now serving lunch. Both the Cantina and The Tortilla Press in Collingswood accommodate gluten-free diets, though only the Cantina has a dedicated gluten-free fryer.

The Drafting Room in Exton (635 N. Pottstown Pike, 610-363-0521) and Spring House (900 N. Bethlehem Pike, 215-646-6116) currently has Redbridge beer on its drinks menu (the Spring House location also offers Woodchuck Granny Smith hard cider).

The longtime gluten free-friendly Outback Steakhouse just introduced My Outback Rewards, a loyalty program that can earn diners a variety of rewards.

I ordered some Betty Crocker gluten-free chocolate-chip cookie and brownie mixes at Amazon.com this week after I saw the hefty discount being offered right now on the entire line of baking mixes. You save 15% by using code BETTYCGF at checkout (good through February 28, 2010) and an additional 15% (with free shipping) when placing a Subscribe & Save order, bringing the per-box price down to $2.78. If you're not familiar with the Subscribe & Save program, you select how frequently you want the receive the item when placing the original order, but you can skip intervals and cancel the subscription without obligation at any time. So if you just want the product once, combine a Subscribe & Save order with use of the code and then cancel the future orders after you receive the first shipment. Amazon also sends out reminder e-mails in advance of future shipments in case you forget to cancel right away.

I think the current cupcake craze has jumped the shark with the introduction of Post's new (gluten-free) Cupcake Pebbles cereal. Check out the hilarious, off-color review of the product posted at Popdose.

Take a tour of the Marlton Whole Foods Market on Tuesday, February at 6 p.m. and then stick around for a free gluten-free cooking demonstration to help you prepare for the Super Bowl. Plenty of product samples from all departments will be available. Space is limited, so register by calling 856-797-1115 or e-mailing Marketing Specialist & Community Liaison Jen Honovic.

The Delaware Celiac and Gluten Intolerant Group's next monthly meeting is scheduled for Sunday, February 7 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Christiana Hospital in Newark (Room 1000). The group will welcome Kristen Ippolito of Amaranth Gluten Free Bakery. Call 302-482-4882 for more information.

Regional kitchenwares chain Kitchen Kapers is hosting a demonstration on gluten-free bread baking on Monday, March 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The instructor is Elizabeth Barbone, the author of Easy Gluten-Free Baking. For more details or for reservations, call 856-778-7705. The event will be held at the Kitchen Kapers Culinary Academy, located at the East Gate Square Shopping Center in Moorestown.

Have a great weekend!

Philadelphia Freedom

Since Mr. Ritt’s pulled up stakes in Philadelphia several years ago, the city had been without a dedicated gluten-free bakery. The just-opened Sweet Freedom Bakery (1424 South Street, 215-545-1899) not only fills that void, but also hopes to satisfy the cravings of vegans and customers with other food restrictions. The pâtisserie is owned by Alison Lubert and Heather Esposito, both of whom are certified holistic health counselors. All of their products are also free of dairy, corn, eggs, peanuts, soy and casein.

Each item’s ingredients are listed on a prominently placed tag found in front of each tray of sweets. Lubert and Esposito bake with a variety of flours (brown and white rice, sorghum, garbanzo bean/chickpea and fava bean) and sweeten their treats with low-glycemic agave nectar, maple syrup and coconut sugar rather than with refined or artificial sweeteners. Available every day are assorted cupcakes, cookies, muffins, cake slices and two specialty items: a Magic Bar and a Blueberry Oat Crumble. Brownies, blondies, macaroons, thumbprints and other cookies and cupcakes appear weekly on designated days.

Everyone in my house loved the Magic Bar ($2.75 single/$30.25 dozen), with a graham cracker-like base under a layer of chocolate and topped with coconut shavings. My older son loved the coconut macaroons ($1 single/$11 dozen). I’d venture to say that the healthiest item on the menu is the Blueberry Oat Crumble ($3 single square/$33 dozen), studded with whole blueberries and coated with whole oats. Only the vanilla-frosted Vanilla Cupcake ($3.50 single/$38.50 dozen) seemed to be missing the richness prevalent in the other pastries.

Among my favorites were the Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich ($3.50 single/$38.50 dozen) and the Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcake, both with chocolate frosting, and the Cinnamon Sugar cake slice ($3.25 single slice/$26 whole loaf).

The airy, pastel-hued bakery, open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, has ample room for customers to sit and enjoy a sweet treat with a selection of teas, La Colombe coffee or VitaCoco water. Special-order double-layer round cakes in several sizes and a 12” chocolate chip cookie cake are available with 48 hours’ notice.

(Photography by Noelle Roberts courtesy of Sweet Freedom Bakery.)

News & Notes: January 22, 2010

I welcome to Gluten Free Philly all of the new subscribers and site visitors that have stopped by recently. Monday's post featured the area gluten-free baker Cookies ... For Me? The company makes year-round and seasonal cookies and brownies that are not only gluten free, but also egg, nut and dairy free.

This week, I learned that Bensi, an Italian restaurant chain with area locations in Wyomissing and North Wales, Pennsylvania and Hamilton and Sicklerville, New Jersey has gluten-free pasta, which is cooked in separate pots. The restaurant's soups, salads and most grilled and sauteed dishes can be prepared gluten free.

I reported weeks ago that P.F. Chang's China Bistro was planning to add a gluten-free beef entree to its menu. Mongolian Beef and Pepper Steak dishes are the likely candidates.

KIND Healthy Snacks announced this week that on Friday, February 5, Starbucks will sample KIND Fruit & Nut Delight and Cranberry Almond+Antioxidants bars at all U.S. locations. KIND bars are among the gluten-free snacks at Starbucks I wrote about last week.

Virago Bakery & Cafe in Lansdale, Pennsylvania has gluten-free pizza by the slice on Fridays and Saturdays.

Joan's GF Great Bakes, whose bagels I reviewed last month, will be introducing bialys (to my knowledge, a gluten-free first). and corn bread soon.

The newest gluten-free pudding flavor from Kozy Shack is chocolate hazelnut.

Glutenfreeda's three varieties of gluten-free granola - Raisin Almond Honey, Apple Almond Honey and Cranberry Cashew Honey - are now available for purchase online at Amazon.com. Amazon ships an 8-pack for $30.77 (per-box price of $3.85).

Holistic health counselor Maura Shenker will speak on celiac disease and gluten intolerance at the Whole Foods on Callowhill Street in Philadelphia on Tuesday, January 28. The free program runs from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Stop by the store's customer service desk or call 215-557-0015 to sign up.

Jessica at BucksMontMom.com wrote to tell me that she is hosting an event at the Ann Taylor Loft at Valley Square in Warrington, Pennsylvania on Friday, January 29 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. A $5 donation at the door will go to benefit Kids With Food Allergies. Attendees will receive 20 percent off their purchase (not including sale items), plus an additional 15 percent off if they open a store charge. The first 75 people to attend will receive a goody bag.

And that, my friends, is all for this week. Have a great weekend!

Joy of Cookies

If you shop for gluten-free foods at Wegmans or Whole Foods in the Delaware Valley, you’ve likely seen the gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free and dairy-free cookies and brownies from Furlong, Pennsylvania-based Cookies...For Me? But you probably don’t know how the company got its name.

After one of their twin boys, Matthew, became extremely sick at 9 months old. Jamie Enders and her husband Ross were told that their child was not only anaphylactic to peanuts and eggs but also severely allergic to wheat, barley, rice, peas, oats, among other things. Matthew went through speech therapy, feeding therapy and was put on a nutritional supplement.

In a story familiar to many of us whose young children were diagnosed with celiac disease, by the time Matthew was 2 years old, he was considered “failure to thrive.” He was afraid to try new foods, let alone eat any foods he knew. At that point, Jamie and her husband added foods containing gluten back into his diet in the hope that this would widen the food spectrum for him. Matthew would always ask “For me?” before eating a treat, making sure the food would not make him sick.

At age 3, however, Matthew still was not on the growth charts. Finally, his parents got the answer – a finding of celiac disease. They eliminated gluten again and within three weeks Matthew was gaining weight.

Jamie wanted to be able to provide people with celiac disease and other dietary restrictions the opportunity to buy cookies at their local supermarkets. She started by creating a recipe for sugar cookies. Many batches and tastings of cookies later, her concept became real. “If you could have seen Matthew’s face light up when he saw a decorated sugar cookie that he could eat, your heart would have melted,” says Jamie. “He ran upstairs to tell his dad, ‘Mom made cookies for me!'”

In addition to having brownies, brownie bites and cookies such as chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and black-and-whites available year-round in stores, Cookies...For Me? offers seasonal-themed treats. Heart-shaped sugar cookies are now available leading up to Valentine’s Day, while cookies shaped as shamrocks will commemorate St. Patrick’s Day. In the spring, Cookies...For Me? plans on baking cookies styled as flowers and butterflies. The company also makes personalized cookie and brownie cakes on a special-order basis. Soft gluten-free oatmeal cookies may be a part of the company’s product line in the future.

The cookies and brownies are also available in Pennsylvania at None Such Farms in Buckingham and Jules Thin Crust Pizza in Doylestown, Newtown and Jenkintown. In New Jersey, they can be found at Cup of Joe in Pennington, New Jersey. Customers can place online orders at the company’s website or at The Gluten-Free Mall.

News & Notes: January 15, 2010

A spirited debate followed in the comments to my Monday post about Starbucks' new gluten-free "healthy" snack options. Readers differed on whether Starbucks deserves praise or criticism for offering these products without also bringing back a gluten-free pastry.

This week brought a couple of firsts to Philadelphia. The long wait for gluten-free pizza in Center City Philadelphia ended this week, as the Italian eatery Giorgio on Pine (1328 Pine Street, 215-545-6265) began serving pizza using Still Riding crusts. Giorgio already has gluten-free pasta on the menu.

Today marks the opening of Sweet Freedom Bakery, the city's first allergen-free bakery (1424 South Street, 215-545-1899). Cupcakes, cookies, muffins, brownies, cake slices and other baked goods on the menu are offered daily, while some specialty items appear once a week. The Gluten Free Philly household got to sample a few of the treats and unanimously recommends the chocolate chip cookie sandwich with chocolate frosting and the "Magic Bar"! What's a "Magic Bar," you say? I'll have the, um, skinny in an upcoming post.

Green Eggs Cafe in South Philadelphia (1306 Dickinson Street, 215-226-3447) offers several gluten-free breakfast choices: quinoa porridge sweetened with agave nectar, customized omelets and "Eggs Your Way."

K. Taylor's Holy Smoke barbeque restaurants in Quakertown, Pennsylvania and Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, which will serve gluten-free ribs, wings and other foods, are slated for a Spring 2010 opening.

Lone Star Steakhouse, with area locations in King of Prussia and Pottstown, Pennsylvania and New Castle and Wilmington, Delaware, has a revamped gluten-free menu.

Sister restaurants Austin's in Reading, Pennsylvania and J.B. Dawson's in Drexel Hill and Langhorne, Pennsylvania now have gluten-free Redbridge beer. J.B. Dawson's is planning a Fall 2010 opening for a new location in Delaware's Christiana Mall.

Whole Foods Markets opened its newest Delaware Valley location in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania (500 W. Germantown Pike, 610-832-0010) this week.

Snikiddy's new gluten-free All-Natural Baked Fries will hit store shelves next month. The crunchy snacks have 50 percent less fat than regular potato chips. The new product comes in Original, Cheddar Cheese, Parmesan Garlic and Classic Ketchup flavors. The Baked Fries are available in Sharing Packs, which contain four to five servings per container, at a suggested retail price of $2.49. Snikiddy Snacks can be found at Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Toys"R"Us nationwide.

Wegmans' Rice Squares cereal, the store-brand version of Rice Chex, is now labeled gluten free. Wegmans' market in Malvern, Pennsylvania is targeted for a June 2010 debut, while a planned location in King of Prussia is still in development. Glutenfreeda's gluten-free burritos can be sampled at Wegmans markets in Pennsylvania next Saturday, January 23.

As I mentioned in November, the January 19th hockey game between the resurgent Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets will spotlight celiac awareness. Tickets for this event at the Wachovia Center are still on sale through the Flyers online box office. To get discounted tickets, enter 154CELIAC as the promotion code.

The newly-formed Chester County Gluten Intolerance Group is holding its quarterly meeting on Wednesday, February 10 from 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Chester County Hospital's Fern Hill Resource Center, located at 915 Old Fern Hill Road, Building B, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. A vendor fair will precede the meeting at 6:30 p.m. For more information, e-mail Nancy Artus or call 610-518-5572.

The Children's Celiac Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is hosting its annual Pediatric Celiac Disease Education Day on Sunday, March 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will take place at CHOP's Abramson Research Building, located at 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard in Philadelphia. Parking will be provided. Call 267-426-6822 to register, as space is limited.

Be sure to follow Gluten Free Philly on Twitter for the latest gluten-free news and deals. Have a great weekend!