My friend Mark, mentioned in my previous post on Annisa and Savoy, recently became very domestic. A man who previously avoided the kitchen, leapfrogged over a simple weeknight meal to dive right into the more complicated world of pastries. Then not satisfied with the relatively simple challenge of a ‘regular’ cookie, he decided to take on gluten-free baking as well. I’m not quite sure what has come over him, but I am happy to be a benefactor.

When he first came to me for advice on how to adapt his Ranger Cookies recipe to be ‘Catherine-friendly’ I sent him a link to this gluten-free cookies post and told him he needed to experiment along the way. He was meticulous in making sure that none of his ingredients or supplies were cross-contaminated in his care or in previous processing. When he brought them to a BBQ I threw earlier in the summer, no one could believe they were gluten-free. My friend Erica even got nervous when she saw me eating them, because “they are too good to be gluten-free.”

I am lucky to have such caring friends, so I feel the need to pay it forward by sharing the recipe with you. He tells me this version is even improved from the batch he brought to the BBQ; they were a resounding success with his coworkers. He’s offered to make some for my upcoming birthday. I can’t imagine a more delicious way to celebrate.

Gluten-Free Ranger Cookies (makes 12-14 three-inch cookies)

Ingredients:
1 cup Gluten-Free Pantry all-purpose flour mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups gluten free corn flakes (crush them to lessen the air in the
measuring cup)
1/8 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I find about 1/2 cup starts
getting too sweet)
1 cup gluten-free rolled oats (quick oats work better but can’t find gf version)
1 cup flaked coconut (packed into the measuring cup since flakes have
lots more air than shredded coconut)

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (8 Tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 355 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in corn flakes, flax seeds, chocolate chips, oats, and coconut. In a large stand mixer combine sugar, butter, salt, vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry mixture 1/2 cup at a time while beating on low speed until thoroughly mixed.

On a slightly greased cookie sheet place heaping tablespoons of cookie dough at least 2″ apart.

Bake for 12-13 minutes, until golden brown around the edges, be careful not to overcook, checking at 10 min for doneness.

Photos (and cookies) by Mark Chen.

One of the frustrating things with Celiac Disease is how expensive ‘gluten-free’ versions of mainstream products are. $5 for a box of Italian gluten-free pasta, $7 for a bag of gluten-free bagels, $8 for a loaf of decent tasting gluten-free bread. It can quickly become quite a burden to a family or even an individual to live on a diet with gluten-free replacements. Well there is some good news at tax time, you may be eligible to deduct some of that extra expense on your taxes.

Suzanne on the NYC Celiac Meetup message board and Celiac.com were great sources in helping me to pull together this guide to tax deductions and the gluten-free diet.

If you refer to IRS ruling 02-19 & IRS medical pamphlet 502 & COMPLY with their REQUISITES you can include your gluten-free food, toiletries, cosmetics, even envelopes with gluten-free glue as part of a medical deduction.

A few things you need first:

• This will be part of your medical expenses deduction so you must have sufficient medical expenses (as a % of your earnings) to itemize your deductions.
• A doctor’s letter to substantiate your condition as DIAGNOSED Celiac Disease.
• Receipts.

What you can deduct:

• You can claim mileage expenses, and postage/shipping fees for special needs shopping.
• The price difference between regular and gluten-free products. If you were buying wheat pasta for .99 and now buy gluten free pasta for $5.00, you have to deduct the difference and that amount is used for the deduction. If you eat cereal, for example & regular corn flakes are $3.50 but gluten-free corn flakes are $5.49 for a box half the size, you have to figure the cost per ounce then calculate the difference.
• The full cost of some replacement items such as gluten-free flour and xanthan gum. Some items are not interchangeable i.e. rice flour is not a one-to-one replacement for wheat flour the way pasta or cereal is so the entire cost is deductible.
• Restaurant surcharges – any extra fees that restaurants charge for gluten-free bread or pasta can be completely deducted.

According to Celiac.com:

“After you file, your IRS office may refer you to Publication 17 and tell you these deductions are not permissible. IRS representatives have ruled otherwise and this is applicable throughout the US Refer them to the following Citations:

Revenue Ruling 55-261
Cohen 38 TC 387
Revenue Ruling 76-80, 67 TC 481
Flemming TC MEMO 1980 583
Van Kalb TC MEMO 1978 366″

I am not an account or a tax attorney so please read all of the pamphlets carefully to check for updates and be sure that you are following their guidelines correctly.  While it’s not super-convenient or easy, it has the potential to provide substantial savings each year.  And if you are already tracking your spending with one of the many tools now available for free online it may not even be that inconvenient.

I didn’t post any of this info to the blog because I want to make sure I only provide info that I have confirmed to the best of my ability.  I don’t want to add any further confusion to this already difficult to navigate gluten-free diet.  After letting another year go by, I decided to check once again on the status of the glaze for my trip to Texas this Thanksgiving.  The web site for the Houston Honeybaked Ham Company still listed ‘wheat’ as an ingredient though phone calls to the particular store claimed that it was allergen free.  I decided to reserve a ham and turkey combo and double-check with the store once I arrived in Houston.  The woman helping me went back to confirm the ingredients with her manager.  When the information I received was not clear enough to make me feel comfortable, she brought out the glaze packaging that listed all of the ingredients and had a big label “ALLERGEN FREE.”  Eureka!  I would once again taste the wonder that is Honeybaked Ham and Turkey.

While I was lucky to find the Allergen Free glaze at this Honeybaked Ham store, an email from the Celiac Listserv today revealed that the Illinois locations still use a glaze with wheat starch.  So please double check with your local store before ordering.  You can always get the turkey or ham without the glaze, though to me that kind of defeats the purpose….

While the Honeybaked Ham was great, the turkey actually didn’t live up to my memory of it. Though the disappointment actually served as a reminder of all of the discoveries I’ve made since starting the gluten-free diet.  Even though sometimes the gluten-free diet just sucks, frequently the new versions of gluten-free dishes are actually better than what I was eating before I was gluten-free.

Here are just a few of the gluten-free discoveries that are better than the gluten-filled versions I enjoyed pre-Celiac:

Gluten-Free Cheesecake with a Pecan-Nut Crust Recipe
Gluten-Free Stuffing with Hazelnuts and Fennel Recipe
Gluten-Free Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Gluten-Free Brownies Recipe
Gluten-Free Roasted Turkey Recipe

And here are a few of my other favorite recipes for this holiday season:

Gluten-Free Dinner Rolls Recipe
Gramercy Tavern Spiced Nuts Recipe
Gluten-Free Cocoa-Spiced Pork Tenderloin Recipe
Barefoot Contessa Rosemary Roasted Cashews Recipe
Gluten-Free Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe
Three-Bean Turkey Chili Recipe

And don’t forget to check out my top 10 tips for a gluten-free holiday on MyRecipes.com.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season filled with family, friends, laughter and a few gluten-free goodies to fill your belly.

I’m constantly amazed at the ability of food to bring people together.  We were totally engaged and enthralled with the conversation as NY bustled around us.  Here’s to the power of food (now I’m going to go eat a persimmon….)

Yes, I ate amazingly well and completely gluten-free in Paris.  Yes I can eat gluten-free pizza at multiple restaurants in Manhattan.  Yes, there are gluten-free croissants and even gluten-free ravioli.  Yes, I have had more amazing food experiences in the last 4 years since being gluten-free than I ever had previously.  Sometimes I just want to be able to eat a Twinkie or a box of Wheat Thins (of course I haven’t eaten a Twinkie since I was in elementary school, but somehow knowing that I won’t ever be able to eat one again makes me mourn the loss).

In the last year I have become so adept at eating/living gluten-free it has started to seem less like a burden, but it still is really hard sometimes.  This week was particularly rough.  A friend offered to make me dinner on Thursday.  He had cooked the same dish successfully for me before so I let my guard down and didn’t rehash the do’s and don’t’s of ‘gluten-free’.  When I arrived at his place the ribs I had been dreaming about were smothered in a fragrant homemade sauce I remembered so well from this summer.  Just as we were about to eat I double-checked with him all of the ingredients.  “It’s the same as what you made this summer right?”

“No, not exactly, I don’t really work from a recipe.”
Oh no, my heart sank.  I couldn’t bear another dinner like Jeff’s.  Hold on, I told myself, it’s probably fine.  “What’s in it, just to be sure?”

The first red flag was fish sauce.  While most fish sauces are gluten-free, I held my breath as we checked the bottle.  It was fine, phew.  The rest of the ingredients were gluten-free.

“Oh and I added a little hoisin sauce at the end” he said.

Then I knew, the amazing ribs, smothered in sauce were just going taunt me.  As we looked at the ingredients, there right on the bottle were the words I dreaded: “WHEAT FLOUR.”  I wanted to cry.  I normally am so good at planning ahead, but when we had had the ribs this summer he didn’t pre-sauce them so everyone was able to put the amount they wanted.  I figured even if the sauce wasn’t gluten-free I would still be able to enjoy the smoky meat falling off the bone.  But alas, it was not meant to be.  He still managed to pull together a great spread of prosciutto, chipotle and cinnamon-spiced sweet potatoes and an arugula salad with toasted walnuts, fresh parmiggiano reggiano and homemade vinaigrette all of which were gluten-free and delicious.  So while I didn’t leave hungry, it was a blow to my spirit.

Less than 24-hours later I encountered another difficult eating situation.  I had a work lunch at 12:45pm.  Now most work lunches aren’t a problem.  As long as a restaurant is somewhat upscale I can usually find something and it tends to be great for the most part. Well, the location hadn’t been selected until an hour beforehand so by the time I got to look at the menu it was too late – a soup and sandwich place, again my heart sank. The focus of the restaurant was bread and luscious gluten-filled soups.  I didn’t have time to reach anyone to ask for a change of venue or to grab something to eat in advance.  When I got to the restaurant it was so crowded inside it was tough to move and there were throngs of people waiting for a table.  Our third guest arrived late so there really wasn’t enough time for us to change restaurants so I had to sit and watch as they ate the most amazing French onion soup I have ever seen/smelled.  I usually don’t have that much of a problem sitting at a table while other people eat, but I had already been so demoralized by the previous evening that this was just too much.  I fought back tears and tried to silence a rumbling stomach as we talked business.

I had a great dinner later that evening, shared with a roommate from college.  It helped me feel better after the dreadful lunch experience.

In general I am a really positive person, but sometimes it really just sucks to be gluten-free.  What has been your most frustrating dining experience since going gluten-free?

My gluten-free cheesecake recipe is a personal and family favorite. Here’s a demonstration of slightly different version using macadamia nuts instead of pecans.

If you like my gluten-free chocolate pecan pie recipe, here is another way to make gluten-free pecan pie – without the crust.

Here are more videos demonstrating:Gluten-Free Turkey
Gluten-Free Gravy
Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Casserole
Gluten-Free Herbed Bread Stuffing

Now be kind, I’m not a professional and this was my first time in front of the camera demonstrating gluten-free cooking techniques. But if you like these, let me know what other types of gluten-free tv you would like to see!

It was during our second dining experience, at Savoy that I knew he was my food soul mate.  He arrived at the restaurant with his camera in hand (to photograph our meal) and a bag of mangosteen for me.  Mangosteen is a tropical fruit that I had never tried before.  It wasn’t for any particular reason other than he knew that I love food and would enjoy trying something new.
Then the waiter came to tell us about the specials, I went through my ‘gluten-free spiel.’ Mark looked at the menu and said “Why don’t you pick dishes that you can eat and then we can share so we both get to taste more.” Then when the waiter brought bread for Mark he pushed it back with the reply “I don’t want you to have to worry about cross-contamination.” Wow! What more could I ask for?

Since that dinner, Mark has helped me paint my apartment, taken me rock climbing for the first time and accompanied me on many more gluten-free restaurant adventures in New York.  He is always up for trying something new; we’ve experimented with sweetbreads, buffalo, stinky cheese and liver (though not together).

Back to the food – I highly recommend both Annisa and Savoy for special occasion gluten-free dining in Manhattan.  While Annisa is an Asian-influenced restaurant (which can be tricky gluten-free territory), the chef was able to make a full selection of dishes for me without soy sauce.

The two appetizers we had a Savoy may be my favorite dishes of the summer.  The caul fat sausage was so good, I almost cried when I went back for lunch and it wasn’t on the menu.  Don’t be dissuaded from going to Savoy for lunch though, the menu is still great and very affordable – more along the lines of sister restaurant Back 40 in the East Village.

Both restaurants were very accommodating and knowledgeable about gluten-free dining needs. They made eating such a pleasure, gluten-free was merely a refinement rather than a restriction.

Annisa
Address: 13 Barrow St
New York, NY 10014
Telephone: (212) 741-6699

Savoy
Address: 70 Prince St
New York, NY 10012
Telephone: (212) 219-8570

Sometimes I have a few weeks of great restaurant experiences and incredible meals at home and I start to forget how omni-present gluten can be. While many chefs are now creating great gluten-free options on their menus, very few friends have the ‘courage’ to cook for me. Since Eliana cooked for me in Italy, I have had only a couple offers for dinners made especially for me. Yesterday, I enjoyed an incredible homemade meal of roasted halibut with tomatoes and basil with a side of broccolini and garlic. Unfortunately, the wild rice was seasoned with a packet containing wheat. I should have remembered after this attempt to cook for me, to ask about seasoning packets with rice. So just as I was getting lulled into a sense of security I was reminded how important it is to check every ingredient – sigh.

But the rest of the meal was perfect – including a gluten-free dessert of fresh fruit and passion fruit sorbet. I even received a return invite; thank goodness the rice mistake was not overly discouraging!

You can read about the wine I selected at the Adventures in Wine Pairing blog I wrote for MyRecipes.com.

I saw an interesting feature on the news about how to keep the holiday weight gain from creeping up on you. Eat before the party and bring a healthy dish — the tips seemed to fit perfectly with how to stay gluten-free. So if you are feeling deprived, just think how much better you will feel when everyone else is making their New Years’ Resolutions to lose the weight they gained.

1. Eat before you go to the party – this strategy is especially important for work or other holiday parties where you don’t have a personal relationship with the host. It’s a common strategy for those of us with Celiac – someone even created a tshirt for us.

2. Bring your own gluten-free dish – It’s difficult for someone unfamiliar with gluten-free requirements to understand which ingredients are off limits. Depending upon the party, you can bring a meal for yourself or why not offer to bring some gluten-free goodies for everyone to enjoy?

3. Be aware of cross-contamination – even if some of the dishes are gluten free, it’s easy for someone to casually use the same serving utensil for gluten and gluten-free dishes alike. Last night I was at a party, ready to eat some delicious hummus and veggies the host had for me. Right as I was about to take a bite I saw someone dip a cracker from another table in the hummus. Luckily I saw it happen BEFORE I took a bite.

4. Talk to the host beforehand – You could ask them to set aside any gluten-free appetizers before they are “glutened” I always try to let the host know that I will be eating beforehand or bringing something that I can eat so that they don’t have to worry about my dietary restrictions. If you do bring your own dish or eat beforehand, let the host know you appreciate the effort and are really excited about the party but that you don’t want to add an extra level of stress to their party planning.

5.Call the restaurant a few days in advance – If one of your holiday parties is at a restaurant, check online to see if they have a menu. Call the manager and let them know when you will be there and what party you are attending. Ask what the options are and see if the chef can accommodate your needs. If it’s a prix fixe menu they need lead time to have a separate dish for you. If they are unable to accommodate you then at least you have enough notice to eat beforehand or bring something gluten-free.

6. Be part of the planning – If it’s a work party or a group gathering get involved at the planning stages and you may be able to have the party at a “gluten-free friendly” establishment.

7. Throw your own holiday party – make it all gluten-free and relax as you enjoy everything being served (though beware, you may have to make the New Year’s Resolution with everyone else)

8. Focus on the people not the food – that’s the most important part of the holidays so try to enjoy all of the opportunities you have to celebrate with family and friends.

I can’t imagine where I would be without the support of family, friends, the Delphi Forums, other gluten-free bloggers, and thousands of google searches. Thank you! Information is power and we need to share it. If my knowledge and what I learned from my mistakes make it easier for even just a few other people struggling with the same frustrations, it makes it all worthwhile. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. As much as I have struggled and cried when things didn’t turn out the way I hoped, living gluten-free has brought me more joy and unexpected connections that I ever dreamed possible. I’ve met incredibly strong and vibrant people in person (and on-line), eaten more deliciously than ever before, developed new cooking skills, rediscovered a love for writing and started toying with photography. I can only imagine what the upcoming year has in store – equally amazing opportunities and challenges await.

I would like to share with you a letter I received from a beautiful new bride who used my recipe for gluten-free cupcakes at her wedding.

“Hiya, it’s Gabrielle who posted on your blog with many questions about your cupcake recipe. I wasn’t sure you got these and with all the help you gave me I wanted to make sure you were able to see that I used that recipe.
I was home for almost a month before the wedding with my mom who can’t eat gluten either. She hasn’t had a cupcake in 15 years, and when she had these she actually started crying, no joke.
I was able to give the lady who was making my cupcakes the recipe I got from your blog, she loved them herself. We had half gluten-free and half regular, we ended up having about 4-5 people who couldn’t or chose to eat gluten-free there so it worked out pretty well. Nobody could tell the difference anyway.
Thanks again so much for your recipe! I’ve been a baking fool lately,trying all sorts of gluten-free recipes, and buying tons at Wild Oats to see if any of them are good or not. I just bought ‘Gluten-Free Quick & Easy’ by Carol Fenster, Ph.D and have been making all sorts of stuff for myself and new husband.
Anyway, thanks again!
- Gabrielle”

I feel honored that Gabrielle took the time to email me and share the photos from her special day. Congratulations to the happy couple – Gabby and Dan! No one would invite Celiac into their life, but I must admit that it daily enriches my life in ways that I never would have imagined.

Happy gluten-free eating to all!