Hey, everyone! Welcome back to Wednesday Links!
I joined the office softball league and our first game was up against a team who takes the game way too seriously, especially playing up against a group of people with a team where 80% of us have never played softball before.
Oh well, we still had a fun time amongst our group!
My partner was also recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease and we just found this great pizza place that offers gluten-free pizza and it was damn good. If any of you have any go-to GF recipes or treats, let me know!
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Lace sent in this link from LitHub, where the newly unveiled King Charles portrait is reimagined as romantasy covers and titles.
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I loved this thread on Twitter of this Sailor Moon inspired wedding! If it’s available on another social media platform, feel free to share.
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Victoria shared this link with us from Reactor Mag about the revolution in reading romance.
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If you’re in the New York area and have no plans Friday, check out this event – Ripped Bodice & Kickstarter IRL: A Celebration of Romance
Critically acclaimed romance authors, Kickstarter creators and the Head of Publishing? You already know it’s going to be a good time. Join us for a magical evening filled with Q&A, writing tips and of course, love — with special guests Adriana Herrera, Lucy Eden and Melinda Kucsera.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Those Charles-inspired book covers are excellent. I seem to be the outlier who immediately liked the portrait because of how the artist captured his face. Sorrow is what I saw first; the creases around his eyes and the eyes themselves said grief and acceptance. I am not whatever the word is for a royal fan, but this feels like the least arrogant, kindest and most human face he (or rather, the artist) has shown the world. YMMV.
Also: viva the revolution that’s always been intrinsic to reading romance.
The portrait reminded me of Lucien Freud’s screaming cardinal
So my uncle-in-law has celiac, which means i have been making GF desserts for family dinner for almost 20 years now. I also make GF gravy at thanksgiving (we all eat meat so it’s very not vegan). I haven’t dabbled much in yeasted bread or other goods that require a really strong flour, but I will say that the 1:1 flours you can buy (like Bob’s or King Arthur) are fabulous and much of the time you’d just never know. We just made this lemon strawberry GF roulade for Mother’s Day http://eatseats.blogspot.com/2019/02/gf-lemon-roulade-with-stawberry-whipped.html and it’s always a hit. Here is a link to my recipe blog with all the GF recipes http://eatseats.blogspot.com/search/label/gluten-free
Alice Medrich’s Flavor Flours is a great cookbook that’s all GF. It’s such a different world than it was in the early days! So much delicious stuff is out there.
I’m a diehard Phillies fan but even if you don’t care much about sportsball, this is a sweet start to prom season:
https://wsvn.com/sports/phillies-bryce-harper-plays-starring-role-in-new-jersey-high-school-seniors-promposal/
I’m (essentially) a vegan who’s allergic to gluten and dairy so most of these will fit those parameters!
Schar is the GOAT imo. I love their artisan grain bread as well as their white bread. Also a huge fan of their ciabatta rolls and entertainment crackers! (They’re also starting to be carried in places! I was surprised to find that Firehouse Subs had their rolls as an option a few weeks ago!)
Barilla’s GF fettuccine is my favorite but they also have GF spaghetti, penne, elbows, lasagna, and rotini – all of which I’ve used and enjoyed! I’ve also enjoyed Ronzoni’s GF pastas.
Bob’s Red Mill is my go to for any kind of GF flour/baking mixes.
OH! And Bisquick! Bisquick has a GF pancake & baking mix but I mainly use it as a bread topping on top of baked spaghetti.
For tortillas, you can obviously just use corn tortillas but I prefer Mission’s GF soft taco tortillas.
I like Simple Truth’s GF home style waffles. I‘ve liked Van’s in the past but they have had several recalls/issues with having gluten in their products so I do NOT recommend.
A surprising amount of cereals are gluten free – Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles both are. As are the corn and rice Chex cereals. I’ve liked all the flavors and the plain ones can make for good breadcrumbs. (As for breadcrumbs, I like Kroger’s own brand but if I can’t find those, I’ll use Ian’s.)
An ANTI-REC – do NOT eat Cheerios! Any of them! They claim to be gluten free but everyone, from those with light intolerances to those with celiac, have said that nothing has messed them up more and I concur.
My favorite frozen GF pizza seems to have disappeared from around me but maybe it’s in your area! Oggi Foods did the most amazing job making a cauliflower crust not taste like cauliflower. As for eating out, if you have a Your Pie in your area, they also have a gluten free crust! And if you tell them it’s for a gluten allergy they will make it separately in the back! Mellow Mushroom also has a gluten free crust but it’s nowhere near as good.
Thai Kitchen has quite a few GF rice noodle soups/kits. I personally eat the spring onion instant rice noodle soup. They also have several GF sauces/pastes. Speaking of, my preferred GF soy sauce is La Choy. For stock, I use Edward & Son’s Not-Chick’N bouillon cubes.
My favorite prepackaged cookies are Partake and Free to Eat. For pre-cut cookie dough you just pop in the oven, you can’t get better than Sweet Loren’s.
For snacks/bars, I eat Lara Bars (especially the kids bars), Kind Bars, and Bobo’s (both the oat bites and the bars. Loved all the flavors except lemon poppyseed.)
And my most recent amazing find has been the Made Good Mornings bars from Walmart. Bought the chocolate and the blueberry on a whim right before going on a 2 week European vacation and they have come in CLUTCH on travel days where I couldn’t find anything to eat!
I’d also look up no gluten gabby on TikTok. She has celiac and posts a ton of videos trying and recommending GF products!
I haven’t tried her GF recipes but I love her regular Japanese recipes. I love that she also has a lot of videos to help the home cook. https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/gluten-free/
Also, you can replace soy sauce with tamari sauce for GF; I think they taste practically the same.
Sending good wishes to you and your partner given the Celiac diagnosis. My husband has a host of food intolerances in addition to wheat (no onion, garlic, oat, almond, and beans to name just a few). A few products he recommends include Tinkyada brown rice pasta (always make it to eat fresh, don’t save), Pamela’s gluten-free Lemon Shortbread, and TJ’s pound plus chocolate and plain gluten free bagels.
I recently reviewed Mightylicious GF brand for a lifestyle blog, and the Oatmeal Coconut cookie was delicious. So was the Salted Peanut Butter cookie. Shortbread wasn’t too bad. Chocolate Chip so-so.
It’s a woman-owned and LBGTQI+-owned brand. Available online and at some retailers.
Not a sales ploy–I get nothing for sharing. Products are certified GF, non-GMO, and Kosher (Kof-K).
I’m not GF, but I do have Crohn’s, so I watch some things I eat because of other sensitivities.
I was diagnosed with celiac disease 15.5 years ago and I think today it’s a lot easier to find good substitutions. Testing things out can be a very fun process. Some things will be horrible and some things will be great. For me, it took about two years to stop craving gluten entirely. I don’t feel like I can speak to great substitutions because it’s such a personal thing, but I would be remiss to not mention that America’s Test Kitchen has two different gluten free cookbooks and they are both so excellent that the pages have fallen out of both of them in our household. The recipes are also a big hit with people who don’t have to eat gluten free. As far as blogs, the Loopy Whisk has the most interesting approach to gluten free baking I’ve ever seen. Also, if you don’t know about it already the Find Me Gluten Free app and website are a godsend. They have reviews based on both safety for diners and taste. (The one bit of caution I would give here is that a few people rely on their Nima sensor scores as word of god and there are a lot of problems with the Nima sensor that you can read about across the web, but they’re not nearly as reliable as people would like them to be in either direction.) It’s a big life change but there is a very robust online celiac community. We’re happy to have y’all!
Thank you all for the recommendations! Our biggest hurdle has been takeout or going out for meals. The Find Me Gluten Free app has definitely been a godsend.
I’ve heard good things about this new gluten free restaurant in Cambridge, MA, from a friend with celiac: https://www.verveinecafe.com/
My food limitations include gluten but unfortunately also countless other things, so I can’t try it myself when I’m there. But the menu looks good!
For dining out in the Greater Boston area, dear.gluten and yeet.that.wheat on instagram have a ton of recommendations. There are a lot of gluten free content creators that do both recipes and reviews of restaurants in their area.