Thank You!

Raspberry sorbet from Grom

This last weekend was very busy. Saturday I met Shauna, aka Gluten-Free Girl, at Strawberry Fields in Central Park. It was fun to meet her and see what seemed like a cast of characters from her blog in person.

Whether you're a fan of hers or not, we all owe Gluten-Free Girl a big "Thank You" for all of the awareness of celiac disease she has created.  She somehow magically got herself on the Food Network in a short "commercial" about eating gluten-free. Who knows how many millions of people that reached when played over and over again for weeks?  Now with her new book there is a virtual book tour by mostly A-list bloggers that will reach thousands of people!  I have emailed some well known bloggers with big audiences in the past explaining celiac disease, eating gluten-free, and how some of their readers are no doubt undiagnosed. I was hoping that since their blogs are centered around food they would be interested in writing about celiac disease and/or gluten-free foods. Unfortunately, they weren't able to write about it, at least at that time. So, here comes along Shauna with her book and some big bloggers are now finally talking about celiac disease and eating gluten-free. Wow!

If you've been struggling with your attitude about eating gluten-free or any other diet restrictions, Shauna's book may help you out with changing your perception from a negative one to a positive one.

Again, thank you, Shauna! [the Beatles song "Thank You Girl" plays in the background]

After the Strawberry Fields meeting we mozied on over to Grom, which has been praised by the NY Times, many food bloggers, and Shauna after eating at one on her honeymoon in Italy. The management stated in an email that all flavors are gluten-free with the exception of nougat, crema di grom and tiramisu. 

The faces above show the tastiness of Grom gelato. I chatted it up with a mom (far left) in line and one of her daughters can't have any artificial food colorings. This was definitely a special treat. Grom may very well be the best gelato in the world due to their high standards for quality seasonal ingredients.

Vanilla and pistachio gelato.

Sunday we met up with Shauna and The Chef at the Colin Leslie Walk For Celiac Disease Awareness in Rye, NY.  Let me tell you, Rye is one of the cutest towns ever!  Imagine going to high school in what looks like a castle. Must be nice. It was nice to see all of the familiar faces from the gf vendor fair scene, and to meet all of the new people that came up to our table. And a big "thank you" goes out to sixteen year old Colin for putting the walk together. Last year he raised over $60,000. I'm excited to find out how much money was raised this year.

Oh, and Soul Dog was serving food at the walk and I was disappointed (due to my corn allergy) to find out that all of their gluten-free baked goods contain corn in some form , but if their black bean soup was an indicator of how good the rest of their food is, then it's definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Poughkeepsie.

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One last HUGE "Thank You" goes to Heidi Collins for her efforts to have celiac disease discussed every day this week on CNN!!!