Gluten Free Offerings at the Cheesecake Factory

Interested in eating at a new restaurant and encouraged by the feedback several other gluten-free people had given, I called the Cheesecake Factory in Colonie Center to find out their gluten free options. A teenage employee answered the phone but promptly put me through to a manager who could answer my questions.

I was very impressed with their level of customer service - the manager I spoke with went through the menu and discussed what was naturally gluten free and what could be made gluten free. We came up with the following options that as of my phone call on 8/29/2008 the following menu options are/can be made gluten free:

Salads
All salads can be made gluten free, with the following salad dressings:

• Bleu Cheese
• Thousand Island
• Honey Mustard
• Caesar

Appetizers

• Salsa and Chips
• Thai Lettuce Wraps
• Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes

Entrees

• Fresh Fish entrees (e.g. Mahi Mahi, Salmon)
• Steaks (with no au jus)
• Grilled Chicken Medallions (avoid the balsamic vinagrette)
• Cajun Jumbalaya (Manager said there was a trace amount of gluten from worcestire sauce, but I've also heard that worcestire sauce is gluten free)

And of course for dessert they have flourless Godiva cheesecake!

When we told our waiter about Vince's diet, they were very accommodating. They brought a manager over to our table who talked to us about the menu. He was very good about double-checking ingredients - even telling us there was red wine vinegar in the Caesar dressing, and expressing concern over ingredients such as dijon mustard and offering to bring the container out so we could check the mustard ingredients.

Vince ordered Steak Diane, served with mashed potatoes and grilled onions, with a caesar salad (no croutons, of course!) I'm not usually a steak person but I tried his steak and it was extremely good. I had the grilled salmon, plain with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. I would have ended the night with the flourless Godiva cheesecake, but since Vince can't eat chocolate there wasn't any point! (Now, if they come out with a flourless vanilla bean cheesecake, then we could talk!)

Overall we were very happy with our experience, and would be happy to recommend the Cheesecake Factory as an allergen-friendly restaurant!

Recipe: Yummy Gluten Free Bread

Breadmaking is a weekly routine in our household. Many of the gluten-free breads on the market are some combination of inedible and extremely expensive, so we purchase bulk flour and have made baking a Sunday afternoon ritual. Not only does homemade gluten free bread taste much better than most store-bought varieties but it saves quite a bit of money.

I have a go-to bread recipe that I modified from the Easy Gluten Free Baking website. It's extremely easy and versatile - I've used this recipe for everything from sandwich bread to Italian loaves to hamburger and hot dog buns.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cups tapioca flour
2/3 cups dry milk (optional)
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dough enhancer
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp canola oil
cooking spray
2 Tbsp melted butter (optional, for brushing - but trust me, you want to do this for Italian bread, as well as cutting diagonal lines in the dough before it rises!)

Directions
1. Mix water, sugar, dough enhancer and yeast. Set aside to foam.
2. Sift together dry ingredients.
3. Add eggs, oil and water/yeast mixture. Blend well - here's where the KitchenAid mixer comes in really handy. After everything has blended I let the KitchenAid knead the dough for at least 10 minutes.
4. Coat your pan with cooking spray. Spread dough into pan. If desired, brush dough with melted butter. Cover and let rise for approximately 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Bake for approx. 45 minutes or until bread is done. Test that bread is done by inserting a toothpick into bread - if it comes out clean the bread should be done. NOTE: My oven is on its way out and tends to cook faster than some other ovens so be sure to check that the bread is done, it's likely your oven will take longer!
7. Remove from pan and let cool. Enjoy!

Note - if you get bored with this recipe you can use alternate flour combinations as long as it adds up to the equivelent of 2 1/2 cups of wheat flour and 2/3 cup starch. So you could use something like:

• 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup sorghum flour, 1/2 cup amaranth flour, 2/3 cup tapioca flour
  

Use your imagination - it can make bread making fun and it's nice to not have the same monotonous thing every week.

Also - huge tip here - I have found King Arthur Flour's website to be absolutely invaluable for baking. My three favorite pans that I've purchased from their site are their hamburger bun pan, the New England hot dog bun pan, and the Italian loaf pan. Trust me, they're worth every penny!

Update: Thanks to Joan for catching my typo - and avoiding a real-life re-enactment of "The Blob!"

Sherry Lynn's is moving!

Sherry Lynn's Gluten Free Bakery and Cafe is moving from their Brunswick location.

The new location will be in Siena Square, 644 New Loudon Road, Latham. Right around the corner from us! That's actually great news - I'm really looking forward to bringing their famous apple fritter donut holes home to Vince for the occasional treat!

Expect the move to occur sometime between October and November. I'll keep you all updated as I find out more!

Source

Gluten Free Beer

One of the biggest things you have to give up on a gluten-free diet is beer. We always like to keep some beer on hand in case we have company, and while admittedly a case of beer could and did last a long time in our household, my then-fiance did enjoy the occasional Budweiser. And as is usually the case, after being told he could never drink regular beer again only made him want... a beer.

Well, the first thing we tried was Redbridge beer. On paper, it's great - brewed by Anheiser-Busch (keep in mind, his beer of choice was Bud), gluten free and available in our local grocery stores. When we first tried Redbridge, it tasted decent. I likened the flavor to Killian's. However, Vince wasn't thrilled with the aftertaste it left. Actually, I think we still have half the original six-pack we bought in the back of our fridge.

I wasn't quite sure what to do next for gluten free beer. I mean, sure, I saw some brands available online but I didn't want to buy an entire case of beer without trying it first! Well, when I was surfing the web the other day I came across mention of Oliver's Beverage Center on Colvin Ave, Albany.

Oliver's has the reputation of being the largest beverage supplier in the Capital Region, and boasts a selection of gluten free beers. Of course, they do carry Redbridge, but I was more interested in some of their other gluten free beer offerings. I asked an employee about gluten free beer and he was very helpful, showing me their small section of gluten free beers as well as their hard ciders. What really impressed me was the fact that they sell beers not only by the case and 6-pack, but by individual bottles as well. It's a lot easier to spend a few bucks on a bottle or two than commit to an entire 6-pack that may or may not be good!

I ended up purchasing two bottles each of Bard's Tale beer, and New Grist beer. We haven't tried the New Grist yet, but Vince was very impressed by the Bard's Tale beer. It had a good taste and not that bad of an aftertaste - we'd definitely buy it again. We're looking forward to trying the New Grist beer as well. Maybe this weekend. :-)

I also picked up some Woodchuck hard cider - their bottles say that it's naturally gluten free, and while I'm not a fan of stuff like that I know my hubby drank those Smirnoff drinks so we figured that might be worth a shot as well.

I've heard that Fox Barrel cider is very good but it's made in Oregon and I haven't been able to find it locally. Does anyone have any other gluten free beer recommendations?

Online Gluten Free Resources

After speaking with some other gluten free people the other day, I found that a lot of people just don't know where to look for information about celiac disease or the gluten free diet. I'm of the opinion that the more information you have the better, so I've put together some information resources that will be very helpful to anyone starting a gluten free diet, and hopefully at least something new for someone who's been following a gluten free diet for some time now. So here goes...

Some informative links:

• First off, Wikipedia articles on celiac disease and the gluten free diet
• Celiac Disease Foundation
• Celiac Sprue Association
• Celiac.com - newcomers should check out the forums
• Gluten Free Baking
• Local Celiac Disease Support Groups
  

Some useful gluten-free blogs:

• Times Union Gluten Free Blog
• Easy Gluten Free Baking Blog
• Gluten Free Girl
• Gluten Free Goddess
• There are many, many others as well!
  

Additionally, did you know that you can set up e-mail alerts through Google? For specific queries of your choice, for example 'celiac' or 'gluten free' you can set up automatic e-mails that let you know whenever that phrase is in the news, new web pages or blog posts concerning that phrase come up, etc. It's a great way to stay on top of the gluten free community, and best of all - it's free! All you need to do is sign up for a (free) Google account, and you can set up as many alerts as you wish. You can find out more information at Google's alerts page.

Still, all this free information is good, but sometimes it's worth paying money for some information. My husband and I started out our gluten-free journey by purchasing gluten free product and Rx lists. They provide subscriptions to lists of gluten information in many different products - you can get this information either on your Windows or Mac desktop (where's the love for us Linux geeks?) or your PDA. If you own a PDA it can be especially useful because you can bring the list right along with you when you go grocery shopping - and if you have any questions the software will provide contact information for the companies in question which can be really useful when you want to research specific foods. There are several such lists available - Vince and I initially purchased the Clan Thompson Celiac SmartList - but I'd love to hear other suggestions as well!

Finally, as one reader, Lisa, also pointed out, The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza sells some gluten free magazines, including Living Without. It could be worth checking out next time you're in the area!

As always - if I've missed a really great resource please let me know!

Gluten Free Soy Sauce!

I took off early from work this afternoon to check out Hannaford's Healthy Living class regarding the gluten free diet. I'll admit that I was already familiar with a lot of the information presented in the class - they went over the basics like what is/is not allowed on a gluten free diet, specific products they sold that are gluten free, etc. However, I was very excited to learn that not only does Hannaford carry a gluten free soy sauce in their Nature's Place department, but as of the writing of this blog entry their name-brand soy sauce is also gluten free!

In the past we've tried La Choy's soy sauce which is also gluten free, but the taste just isn't that great. The other gluten free soy sauce we've experienced is the Panda sauce produced by the Kari-Out company. This is an especially nice find - we love going out for sushi, but we can't usually go out at the spur of the moment. We have to plan ahead and remember to bring our own soy sauce. Well, certain local restaurants, such as Okinawa in Wynantskill, carry the gluten free panda soy sauce. So not only do we get to go out for a nice sushi dinner, but we also don't have to worry about gluten free soy sauce!

Albany Gluten Free Resources, Part 2

It's about that time again to update the list of gluten free resources in the Albany area. In my original post, I focused primarily on Albany gluten free resources, but this list includes several capital district gluten free resources as well as restaurants that serve gluten free food in other areas of New York State.

If I've left off any restaurants, stores or other helpful information please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear about more gluten free resources in the Capital District (and beyond!) not only for us to try but also to add to this ever-expanding list of gluten free resources.

Of course, before going to any restaurant, much less one listed here, it's always good practice to call ahead and verify that they can, in fact, accomodate your special dietary needs.

Happy gluten free dining. shopping and eating!

Restaurants with dedicated GF menus

• Avenue A, Albany


• Boston Market (Fast Food - where you can actually eat the meal and not just fillings! Are you listening, Moes??)


• Carabba’s Italian Grill, Latham


• Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse, Fishkill


• Chili’s, Albany and Clifton Park


• Circus Café, Saratoga


• El Loco Mexican Café, Albany


• KDs Fish Fry, Saratoga


• Kirker’s Steak and Seafood


• Macaroni Grill, Albany


• Nunzio’s Pizza and Deli, Saratoga


• Outback, Albany and Clifton Park


• PF Chang’s, Albany


• Pizzeria Uno, Albany, Latham, and Saratoga


• Scratch Bakery and Café, Albany


• Sherry Lynn’s Gluten Free Bakery and Café, Brunswick


• Smokey Bones, Albany


• Soul Dog, Poughkeepsie NY


• Wheat Fields, Saratoga (Call and check, but I read a review that you can order any pasta dish to be made with rice pasta)

Restaurants without dedicated GF menus but that are generally safe

• Just about any sushi restaurant, as long as you bring your own soy sauce


• Just about any steak house – steak, baked potato and veggies are gluten free, the only real issue can be au jus from prime rib


• Cheesecake Factory (They don’t list anything online but have GF cheesecake so I’d imagine there has to be stuff that’s OK to eat there)


• Hattie’s, Saratoga (We haven’t been, but I’ve read a lot of good review RE: GF dining experiences there)


• Maestro’s, Saratoga


• Red Lobster (steamed crab and lobster only, with baked/mashed potatoes and salad)


• Also most high-end restaurants have chefs that can accommodate a gluten free diet. It's always good to call first though!

Grocery and health food stores that carry GF items:

• Dean's Natural Foods, Westgate Plaza, Albany


• Green Grocer, Clifton Park


• Hannaford (we particularly like the ones on Wolf Road and in Latham Farms)


• Honest Weight Food Co-Op, Albany


• It's Only Natural, LLC, Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany


• Paradise Natural Foods, Albany


• Price Chopper (we particularly like the one on Route 9 in Latham)

As an additional note, Oliver’s Beverage Center on Colvin Ave in Albany is on my list of places to check out this weekend. Apparently they stock four different types of GF beer.