Heartland a good gluten-free spaghetti option

Long ago, I recommended a gluten-free spaghetti brand called Heartland as the best brand around. It's one of the few spaghetti brands I tried that cooked and tasted like regular spaghetti. And unlike other gluten-free brands, it's reasonably priced. You can buy it at Jacksonville area Walmart stores, in the pasta aisle.
Heartland Pasta put out a press release today encouraging people to try its products. It's offering a 55-cent coupon if you "like" Heartland on Facebook.
If you haven't tried it, here's a good opportunity. I highly recommend it.

Celiac Support Group of Jacksonville meets this Saturday

The monthly meeting of the Celiac Support Group of Jacksonville will be held this Saturday, Feb. 18, at 11 a.m. at Sunrise Assisted Living of Jacksonville at 4870 Belfort Rd. It's just south of JTB, past the Borland-Groover Clinic (where many of us have gone to get tested for celiac).

The support group meets on the third Saturday of every month at Sunrise. For those of you who haven't been there previously, it's a very informal gathering that lasts for about an hour. We discuss the trials and tribulations of the gluten-free diet and share any tips that can help others. We sometimes have guest speakers and also sometimes have free gluten-free goodies to take home.

Please join us.

Check out my column

In case you missed it, my new monthly gluten-free column debuted today in the Times-Union:

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/455301/mark-basch/2012-02-08/recently-diagnosed-celiacs-have-it-better

And in an interesting twist in the print edition, after my column on page 1 of the Taste section, there's a story extolling the virtues of barley on page 3! Oh well.

A gluten-free Super Bowl

That was a great Super Bowl, and not just because the Giants won. It was also great because I was able to enjoy it with wings and beer.
Last year, as a newly diagnosed celiac, I had no where to go because there were very few places that served gluten-free beer and I couldn't find any place that served gluten-free chicken wings.
But I was able to spend this year's Super Bowl at Time Out Sports Grill, which has Redbridge beer and also has a few gluten-free offerings on the menu, including chicken wings and french fries.
I do take some credit for Time Out's gluten-free menu because I was the first one who first brought it up with them about a year ago. But I give all the credit to manager Claudia Starus who took an interest in gluten-free possibilities and ran with it. She put a separate gluten-free fryer in the kitchen to handle wings and french fries. And she also added a few other items, like flatbreads with a gluten-free crust.
I don't know of any other sports bar in Jacksonville serving gluten-free wings. But with the growth in gluten-free menu items in restaurants over the past year, hopefully we'll have even more choices next year...when the Giants repeat!

An awkward situation with gluten

I hear a lot about the problems celiacs encounter at events where food is served. I've somehow managed to avoid them in the 13 months since I went gluten free. But I found myself in a situation this week that I didn't know how to handle.
I was attending a business luncheon at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Jacksonville branch. I went to one of these last year where they served a buffet featuring lasagna, which I couldn't eat. But I just helped myself to a large portion of the salad. So I went to this luncheon anticipating I'd do the same thing.
But when I went up to the serving line, I found it had a large salad bowl with croutons already mixed in. Grrrrrrr. Maybe it's more common that I thought, but that's the first time I've ever seen that. I wasn't sure what to do or who I could complain to. I mean, when I order a salad in a restaurant I make sure to say "no croutons." And if the salad then comes with croutons (which hasn't happened to me), I would send it back.
But what do you do in a buffet line? I really wasn't about to make a fuss in the middle of this luncheon. So I picked at the big salad bowl to try to get around the croutons. But I'm sure I must have gotten gluten contamination.
Anyway, just wondering, what should I have done?

Dogfish's gluten-free beer hitting the market

A new gluten-free beer should be appearing on Jacksonville area store shelves in the coming days.
Dogfish Head is introducing a bear called Tweason'ale that will be shipped to Florida distributors next week, the company told me.
Tweason'ale is a bit different than other beers, brewed with strawberries and honey. But it's always nice to find more choices.

“It seems as if lots of folks who have gluten- tolerance issues are pining for an interesting beer,” Dogfish founder and president Sam Calagione said in a pitch for Tweason'ale. “While there are a few well-made examples that mirror traditional beer styles, there aren’t any off-centered offerings.”
Here's Dogfish's description of Tweason'ale:
"We replaced the classic barley foundation of beer with a mild sorghum base. The hints of molasses and pit-fruit are balanced by vibrant strawberry notes and a unique complexity that comes with the addition of a malty buckwheat honey."
Tweason'ale will be sold in 12-ounce four-packs.

Joseph's now has gluten-free pizza!

Nothing makes my day more than finding out that another Jacksonville restaurant has added gluten-free pizza to its menu. I've found some good places for pizza, but I was getting bored with them.
So when Jennifer of glutenfreejacksonville.com posted on Facebook this morning that Joseph's Pizza now has gluten-free pizza, I had to go right away (I guess Facebook is actually useful). And I'm glad I did.
My pepperoni and sausage pizza had a nice crispy crust and a good flavor. I will definitely be going back for more.

Joseph's has only been offering the gluten-free pizza for about a week. I asked about gluten-free beer to go with it and they don't have any, but they do have Woodchuck cider, which is gluten-free. The server told me he didn't know there were gluten-free beers, so I told him about Anheuser-Busch's Redbridge. He said he'd tell the owners, so hopefully we'll be able to get pizza and beer there soon.
Joseph's has two locations in Atlantic Beach (where I went) and on North Main Street.