Gluten Free Travel Blog

I first met Maureen Burke several years ago at a Washington DC Metro Celiacs meeting. She had brought samples of her company's delicious gluten free and allergen free sweet and savory creations for all of us members to sample. Her company is called One Dish Cuisine, and the idea is to offer gluten free and allergen free meals that are bought, stored, baked, and served in ONE dish...reducing any chance of cross contamination in preparation. Her meals are offered at several restaurants, markets, bakeries, assisted living facilities, and hospitals in Baltimore and Washington areas. I've had the pleasure to sample her food at many events and expos since, and I particularly enjoyed her crabcakes and pizza. Fast forward to present day, and Maureen has opened her own restaurant, also called One Dish Cuisine Cafe, Deli, and Bakery. Maureen's motivations to serve the Celiac, gluten free, and allergen free communities run deep. She was diagnosed with Celiac herself in the late 80's -- WAY before the term "gluten free" was a household term. She's also casein intolerant. Coincidentally, she also has a nephew who has special dietary needs -- due to Autism, PDD NOS. Her efforts to create delicious and nutritious... Read more →

If you haven't already, be sure to check out this month's Featured Review on GlutenFreeTravelSite. We showcase a relatively new and incredible 100% gluten free bakery cafe outside of Boston -- in Millis, Massachusetts to be exact. My mouth was watering reading the review when we first received it, and the pictures add to the torture. How I wish we had a place like this near where we live! Twist Bakery Cafe is not only gluten-free -- but their creaations are free of many other common allergens as well. But the owner, Kathryn Ernst, doesn't broadcast that...she wants Twist to appeal to everyone, not just people with special dietary restrictions. And from the sounds of it from this reviewer, the items are so tasty, you won't care what's in them -- or not in them! Twist has a huge selection of fresh-baked gluten-free treats -- as well as savory items and entrees for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Patrons have even been spotted leaving the cafe with huge "to-go" bags. Apparently, it's WELL worth the trip from Boston to this suburb -- just to visit Twist. Have you been? Do you live somewhere else with a similar bakery or cafe? Please... Read more →

Most of us think long and hard about the donations we make to worthy charitable causes, weighing various organizations against each other to determine who might benefit most from a donation. In leaner economic times like these, the decisions are even harder. Add that to the fact that many organizations are being forced to do more with less as donations don't come in quite as rapidly as they have during other, more prosperous, times. If you like to make donations to causes you believe in, then what better cause than a gluten-free bakery looking to purchase equipment to meet the growing demand for their GF products? Part of this expansion includes being abe to offer online ordering. The bakery is eban bakery, and even if you don't live near their location in Columbus, Ohio, perhaps you, too, will be able to experience their wonderful gluten-free breads and baked treats -- if they raise the money needed. eban bakery makes their gluten-free breads and baked goods using all natural and organic ingredients, which is something I've always look for when buying food -- gluten-free or not. Their goal is to raise $25,000 by April 26, but any amount pledged -- even... Read more →

I have to confess...I love anything made with nuts. Nut-crusted fish. nuts sprinkled in salads, nuts in quinoa, chocolate covered nuts...you name it. And I love eating handfuls of nuts: cashews, pistachios, almonds, pecans, walnuts, peanuts. Fortunately, no one in our household has any (known) nut allergies! I'm particularly intrigued by using nut flours -- like almond flour -- in baked goods. Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix, which is our family's favorite gluten-free pancake mix, includes almond meal, which is probably one of the reasons we find it so delicious. Typically almond meal lends moistness and a subtle wonderful flavor to gluten-free baked goods -- and I like knowing I'm getting fiber and protein, too. So when I recently read about a new bakery called Dolcetti that offed a range of flourless gluten-free cookies inspired by an old Italian recipe using nut flour, I just had to try them. Dolcetti's artisan nut cookies are, in short, amazing. They're sold at a handful of places in the San Francisco Bay area, but fortunately for the rest of us, you can purchase them online (3-bag minimum order). These are small, two-bite cookies that don't make you feel guilty when you eat a... Read more →

I'd never heard of the Butterfly Bakery until recently, when they offered to send me some of their gluten-free goodies to try. Butterfly Bakery is a special bakery founded by Brenda Isaac in 1998 in Clifton, New Jersey. Her dream was to create sugar-free baked goods that her diabetic mother could enjoy. The company has since evolved to serve people on gluten-free diets as well. Brenda offers both a Sugar Free line of products and a Gluten Free line of products (and is working on a line that is BOTH gluten and sugar free!). The items we tried were the Gluten Free Wild Blueberry Mini Muffins, and the Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies. Both were quite delicious. The mini muffins tasted identical (in our opinion) to any "regular" blueberry mini muffins you might remember. And the oatmeal cookies were SO good...I can't quite put my finger on what I liked so much about them, but they had a really nice and unique texture and taste. A bit different from typical oatmeal raisin cookies, but perhaps even better. Brenda uses whole greain Teff flour in her gluten-free recipes, so you are not only getting a product that's great tasting and gluten-free, but... Read more →

I had the opportunity to attend Washington, DC's Gluten-Free Expo last Friday at the Embassy Suites Convention Center hotel. It was a great success -- and an opportunity for me to meet new GF friends and re-connect with some old. Over 600 people attended this first-annual event, and proceeds went to the Celiac Disease Program at Children's National Medical Center. Although I didn't have the opportunity to leave my own booth for very long, I did a quick lap through the hall of 60-or-so vendors, most of whom were sampling delicious sweet and savory gluten-free treats. Amie Valpone, of The Healthy Apple blog, was handing out samples of Rudi's delicious line of gluten-free breads. Glutino was also on-hand with samples of their new sandwich bread, which looks, smells, and tastes so much like "real" bread, you can definitely be fooled. Bloggers Diane of The Whole Gang and Bernice from Wheatless and Meatless were there, as were some of my favorite local baker Marion of Marion's Smart Delights bake shop and Maureen of One Dish Cuisine (FANTASTIC gluten-free crabcakes!). In the booth beside me was Tonya's Gluten Free Kitchen, sampling their amazing gluten-free soft pretzels and pretzel bites (worthy of ballparks!).... Read more →

The products I've tried from Glutenus Minimus gluten-free bakery in Belmont, Massachusetts are fantastic -- whether you buy them pre-made, or buy one of their many pre-packaged mixes to make yourself. Their extensive line of products include cookies and squares, muffins, cupcakes/cakes, coffee cakes, loaves, and breads. They sell their baked goods and their mixes at their bakery in Belmont, and they also have their products available at area restaurants, bakeries, and markets. You can also order their mixes on their website. Special occasion cakes and cupcakes are available via special order, too. We have tried their blueberry muffins, which were fantastic...very moist and tasted like "the real thing." The mini vanilla pound cake we purchased was also very flavorful with a good pound-cake texture. These products were indistinguishable from gluten-containing baked goods. We purchased three gluten-free mixes to make at home: the Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Mix (a top seller), the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, and the Vanilla Cake Mix. The coffee cake was outstanding. I'd never made a gluten-free coffee cake before, and most of the pre-made ones we'd tasted weren't all that special. I definitely know why this is one of their best sellers. And it was... Read more →

Our family traveled to Pittsburgh this past weekend. After seeing a brief review of Gluuteny gluten-free bakery on our sister website, GlutenFreeTravelSite, we decided we would have to make a stop there on our way in to town. So glad we did! It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and the woman working in the store at the time (Elizabeth) apologized for the lighter selection of baked goods, given the time of day. But we were still very pleased with the range of choices: brownies, iced sugar cookies, mini chocolate vanilla marbled bundt cakes, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, huge Whoopie pies, gingerbread men, huge chocolate chip cookies, mini cinnamon swirl coffee cakes, pound cakes, pumpkin loaves, and lemon loaves. YUM!! What delicious-looking treats. We seriously had to use discipline not to buy everything in the store. We finally settled on a few cupcakes, some muffins, the coffee cake, and a Whoopie pie. The great thing is that they sell the dry mixes for most of the items baked in the store, so we also bought a mix for the marbled bundt cake. (You can order these mixes, plus their cookies and croutons, to be shipped but not the other baked goods,... Read more →