Need I really say more? It was awesome! The staff was very upbeat and careful that we sat in spaces where the utensils were double washed. The food was good and the taffy was yummy!

Here’s my girl with her FIRST ever taffy and our little family (I’m behind the camera of course) filling up our tummies!

We are definetly going back to this restaurant (well, maybe the Laval location) for a family outing with no stress or extra lunchboxes!

And what happens when you give a 2 year old too much sugar…

You probably already know this, that almost all Blue cheeses must be stricken from your list of acceptable foods once you start a GF diet. To be honest, it’s actually one of the first things I thought about when she was finally diagnosed. Why? Because I had visions of us trying out new and fantastical cheeses together. My daughter has a very wide palette (if that’s how it’s said) and she’ll try out almost anything. She loves extra old cheddar just as well as Swiss. Her favorite though is Brick. So far, we’ve only been buying the little brick-like cheeses from the PC (President’s Choice) line. They’re ok, but nothing to rave about. I had made the decision that if she was ever interested in “real” cheeses, that I’d make the calls, but she hadn’t shown any interest, so I hadn’t yet bothered.

This week I received my CCA Quebec Chapter Newsletter only to find that our current Vice President, Louise Pearl, has written an article/recipe using Rosenberg Blue Cheese! I was intrigued and read through the article like it was chocolate, savoring every word. Then, wouldn’t you know it, during lunch yesterday, I was eating a piece of Brie and both girls wanted a taste. The youngest balk at the smell but I had to tell my eldest that she couldn’t have any as I didn’t know if it contained gluten, and bless her heart, she just responded with a smiling “oh, ok ”. So, this morning, I googled Rosenberg Cheeses and there it is, in plain french, they don’t use gluten containing cultures to make their Blue Cheeses. I will very likely contact them further to be sure that their standards on gluten is as strict as mine, no gluten meaning NO gluten, not just “under 20ppm”. To get the Blue Cheese culture, they need to ferment it in bread, so how do they go about it and yet not have gluten in their cheeses?

We’ll see, but for those of you content with their FAQ statement, go on, enjoy a bite of that yummy Blue Cheese!

I’ve been looking for GF items of those varieties for a while and although many of the PC products I’ve checked are indeed GF, I like to find Organic alternatives when I can.

I just spoke on the phone with a very nice lady from Organic Meadow products and she confirmed that everything except their Ice Creams can be considered GF. She explained that the Ice Cream is the only product that is produced at a different facility which also produces other brands of Ice Creams. Their lines aren’t supposed to contain any, but she couldn’t assure me of anything and I can understand wanting to be 150% sure when it concerns gluten.

Nothing is mentioned on their website, but you can certainly call their toll free number 1-866-767-9694 and confirm this for yourself.

Enjoy!

I’m slowly making my way through my bookmarks and here are the ones that I found share worthy for today

Gluten-Free Trading Company’s Online Store (Lots of goodies they’ve verified that I’m now on the hunt to find here or to suggest to my favorite GF shops )

Recipe Goldmine (You have to scroll down a little to see the list of recipes and take note, not all recipes listed are GF, make sure to check the recipes themselves and if they have the GF abreviation beside the recipe title)

Whole Foods Market GF Recipes (HUGE selection of recipes!)

Ok, I’ve got a VAST amount of bookmarks, but they are all the recipes from these various sites and a few others.

More another time

Today I come to you with a few “Holy Grail” links in this GF net world of ours. HOURS and HOURS of reading pleasure from one coast to the other. Maybe even a few from the other side of the planet. Really, nothing is too far now

The two I found last night:
Gluten Free Post
Genie Walker’s AC GF reviews

A couple I keep going to on a regular basis:
Gluten Free Girl (BTW, her book is a very interesting read!)
Gluten Free Mom

And this last I’ve had for a while and keep going to it again and again:
Gluten-Free Living.net

I was sure I had more, I have a TON of bookmarks, seems I haven’t had as much time to surf as I was hoping to.

Enjoy!

If anyone were to try and browse through my bookmarks, they’d likely have a heart attack. I’ve NEVER been able to organize bookmarks. It’s horrendous. I’ve gotten into the bad habit of bookmarking something if I don’t have time to read it at that moment… you can just imagine the result. The next time I log on, I don’t think to “check out” those links and add more… let me see… Oh, I have easily over a thousand bookmarks. Easily.

That said, there are quite a few gems in there and (holding my scout’s fingers up) I vow, from here on out, to go through my bookmarks and share whatever GF goodies I find with all of you here.

Before I start hunting for new/old links, there are a few basics I would like to share. Basic websites any new Celiac or parent to a Celiac should browse through and read up on before going through all the “blogs/products/restaurants/taveling/etc” sites out there. I even found a 101 gluten free blog Blog the other day. Genius!

My short list of “basics”, which will be permanently available in the “useful links” library:

Canadian Sites:

CCA: Canadian Celiacs Association
FMCQ: Fondation de la Maladie du Coeliacque du Québec
Health Canada
Celiac Canada *INFORMATION MAY NOT BE CURRENT, check back for link*

American Sites:

CSA: Celiac Sprue Association

Other International Sites:

Coeliac UK

Happy surfing!