Just ate Gluten-free Pizza, Gluten-free fries, Gluten-free ice cream
Just ate animal-free chiquen sandwich
Just ate Vegetarian Gluten-Free Eggless Quiche
Just ate chocolate-free, dairy-free Chokolot Pudding
We totally get having dietary restrictions whether they are medically required or self-imposed. I just don't get why people need to keep clarifying that they can't or don't eat certain foods. Why don't they just say they had some delish pizza? I don't clarify that everything I eat is banana-free.
Gluten-free seems to be the new thing. We know it is a serious problem for people with allergies and Celiac Disease and in LA, people just think they are cool if they say they don't eat it. Weirdos. We are familiar with Celiac Disease because our most beloved grandfather, Poppa Dave, had it. Growing up, he never referred to his meals as gluten-free. But, we always referred to the bread, crackers, and cookies we knew were his as Poppa Dave's Special whatever because it tasted like cardboard we'd not want to eat by mistake.
Nana, Poppa Dave's wife, went out of her way to find special breads for Poppa Dave (even when it meant driving an hour away from their small town just to get it) and baked special cakes and cookies for him. The special cake was a wonderful 12-egg spongecake that we'd all watch rise in the oven with great fascination. Nana was an amazing cook, known mostly for her cookies. Yet, the cookies she made Poppa Dave were just gross. They were mostly rice flour, sugar, and eggs. Nana was not one to futz with a recipe too much and maybe she was afraid to make something that would harm Poppa Dave, but I had no idea how he ate those. So, one day in Nana's kitchen while she was teaching me how to make a meat pie, I asked her if I could try making some cookies for Poppa Dave. Of course she humored me and said ok, Dolly. At the ripe old age of 12, I did some research, did some experimenting, did a lot of tasting, and I altered Nana's Special Cookie recipe. Poppa Dave now had peanut butter, banana, and cinnamon gluten-free cookies and Nana suddenly loved me a little more and little less at the same time. He loved his new cookies.
The other day when I started seeing ads for the new Betty Crocker Gluten-Free brownie mix where the gluten-free eaters all say the brownies taste just like the real thing, I had to try them. I had to know how far special has come. Just add eggs and butter to the mix and bake. It's easy.
The brownies look great. They are chewy and chocolaty with a slight fruitiness to them. The texture is a tiny bit sandy in a rice flour, corn starch way. They taste good if, if, IF you have not had a brownie full of gluten ever or in the last few years. They taste GREAT if you've never had a real brownie. If you are on a gluten-free diet and have PMS, just bake yourself a pan of these. If you need to make a treat for a gluten-free eater, these brownies are good. If you tell people you are gluten-free because you think it's cool to say that, just make normal brownies in the privacy of your own home when nobody will see the truth. I would've happily baked these for my Poppa Dave but I'd eat the banana-free brownies off the full- of-gluten plate next to them.
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