Tag Archives: Celiac Disease

DELICIOUS, FUN & E-Z COOKIE DOUGH RECIPES & LOCATIONS

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I’ve received numerous emails and calls about our cookie dough.  I love our cookie dough – it’s SO easy to use – no mess, mixing, just scoop and bake . . . . OR roll it out, make cookie cutter cookies (my favorite!), bake and decorate.  Nothing compares to making your own cookies right at home, eating warm cookies right out of the oven!  It’s fun and it’s easy!  It’s a great family activity, great for birthday parties, school events and more.   Here are a few ideas you can use to make your own cookies and treats at home with our 3 flavors of cookie dough.

Sensational Sugar -  make sugar cookies and holiday cookies, and/or as a base for many different types of cookies including snickerdoodles, thumbprint cookies, sandwich cookies, and cut out cookies.  Our customers love it because it’s not too sweet.  Create your own special cookies with this very versatile cookie dough!

Chewy Chocolate Chip – packed with dark chocolate chips this dough makes super delicious chocolate chip cookies and is a favorite among our customers.    So yummy – whether you make your cookies tiny, small, medium or large they will be a hit!  During the summer we like to make chocolate chip cookies and fill them with ice cream (or ice dream) for a special ice cream treat.  It’s fun, easy, yummy and another great activity to do with your friends and family!

Chocolate Brownie – this is our newest cookie dough.  You can use it to make chocolate cookies.  You can add chocolate or vanilla chips or another type of candy for a special surprise cookie.  Make these cookies and fill with ice cream for a really special ice cream sandwich treat!  Want brownies?  Just spread in a pan and bake and voila!  Cut the brownies, add ice cream and have a brownie ice cream sundae treat.  Yummy!

I’ve been asked how many cookies you can make with one tub of cookie dough.  It depends on the size of your cookie.  We can bake 40 bite-sized cookies out of one tub (check our website for a picture of these if you’ve never had one ).  We’ve made over 100 tiny cookies and more than 90 small cookie stars and heart cookies with one tub.

You can also make wonderful cookie cakes with one tub of cookie dough.  Just roll the dough out into a cake pan that you’ve sprayed with cooking spray.  Use a spatula to even out the dough and bake – and you’ve got yourself a delicious cookie cake!

You’ve been asking where you can purchase the cookie dough.  There are 5 stores in Connecticut that carry the cookie dough year round.  All of them have the dough in their freezer section, sometimes in the frozen gluten-free freezer, sometimes with the ice cream.  If you don’t see it, please ask someone in the store to help you find it.

  • New Morning Natural Market in Woodbury
  • Shoprite of Enfield
  • Wishing Well in Sandy Hook
  • Nature’s Temptations in Ridgefield
  • Whole Foods in Darien

Some Whole Foods in the Northeast carry the cookie dough year round.  Others carry the dough during the holidays.  It depends on their freezer space, gluten-free customer base and how quickly the dough sells.  This includes: Tribeca & Union Square in NYC;  White Plains, NY;  Darien, CT; Edgewater & Paramus, NJ; Portland, Maine;  Woburn, MA.

If you’d like to see our cookie dough (or other products) in your local store please ask the store manager to order them;  local retailers listen to your requests and want to meet their customer needs.   Please send us an email with the store information so we can contact them too.

You can always order the cookie dough on line.  We ship via fedex ground, which is a one day shipment time in the NY Metro and New England region.  Outside of this region you would need to ship via overnight service, which can be expensive.

We hope you enjoy our recipes and ideas for how you can use our cookie dough to make your own special cookies and treats.  Please check out our recipes in our blog archive and on our website.  Send us your favorite cookie dough recipes and pictures and we will post them on our facebook page!

 

Gluten-Free Valentines Day Dinner

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You can be Gluten-Free and have food allergies and still have a magnificent meal!  Many people go out for dinner on Valentine’s Day.  I actually prefer to eat at home where I can make a fabulous meal that is safe for me to eat at a fraction of the price we would pay at a restaurant.

We had a scrumptious Valentine’s Day Dinner last night.  We had Cornish Game Hens, Asparagus and Brown Rice.  Here is the recipe for anyone who is interested.

Cornish Game Hens

I prefer to buy fresh cornish game hens.  I had to ask the meat department of our grocery store for them as they were not out on the shelves, and I did not want to buy frozen hens.

  • Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray and put the hens in the dish on their breasts, with backs facing up.
  • Rub the hens with olive oil
  • Place hens on breasts and season with your favorite herbs.
  • Turn hens onto their backs and do the same.  Make sure you spread the seasoning onto the sides of the bird’s so that you cover their wings and legs with seasoning.
  • For seasoning I used: a little seasoned salt, a little paprika and herbes de provence (which is a mixture of herbs that includes rosemary, oregano, basil and thyme).
  • Cut up an onion and fill the cavities of the birds with the onion
  • Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes depending on your oven and the size of the hens.

Brown Rice – When the hens have approximately 45 minutes to go, start on the brown rice.

  • Put a cup of rice into a pot
  • Add in water to cover the rice approximately 1/2 inch.
  • Boil the water, then set the stovetop to simmer.
  • Cover the rice and simmer for about 40 minutes.
  • Check frequently and add enough water if needed to prevent burning.

Asparagus

Start the asparagus approximately 10 minutes before the meal is ready.

  • Wash and cut off ends of the asparagus.
  • Fill a pan with enough water to cover the asparagus.
  • Bring water to a boil and put the asparagus into the water.
  • Cover the pan and cook on medium heat for approximately 5 minutes.  Cook less for a more crunchy asparagus.
  • Drain and serve plain or with a little butter or margarine to taste.

You can spoon the drippings from the juice of the hens and the olive oil onto the birds, the rice and the asparagus.  So so delicious! I never eat the whole bird, so I am having the rest of it for lunch today.  Can’t wait!

Valentine's Day Dinner

Restaurant Review: Peacefood Cafe, New York City

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I had a lunch meeting today with Allison and Annie at the Peacefood Cafe on Amsterdam and 83rd Street in NYC.  It is a vegan cafe that has a great selection of baked goods, drinks, salads, soups, raw foods and cooked entrees.  Some of these are gluten-free, all are made without any meats, dairy or eggs.

The restaurant is deceivingly long with a front room and a back room, a counter and a sitting area for people who order take out, of which there were many.  They have a sign up that says that due to the number of people who come for lunch that laptops are not allowed b/w the hours of 12:00 – 3:00.  Apparently people come and hang out for long periods of time with their laptops, and it’s easy to see why.  It’s a bright and open and welcoming space.

When you walk in there is a nice round table in the corner by the window which we grabbed. It can comfortably sit 4 people and being by the window had great sun.  Unfortunately it go so hot between the sun and the heat in the restaurant that eventually we had to move to the back of the restaurant.

Overall my experience was great with one little glitch that I will get to later.  We started with fried chickpea “fries” which looked more like little rectangle potato cakes than fries.  They are fried in canola oil so I was able to eat them.  They have a little tang and a little punch to them. Very yummy.

Then we moved on to butternut squash soup, which is one of my favorites.  It also had sweet potato and a few other veggies in it, and thankfully no dairy or gluten in it as most soups do, so I could eat it.  We all agreed it was delicious.  We also got fruit smoothies (again no dairy) made with green vegies and fruit.  After the hot soup in the hot sun and the hot radiator we were melting and moved to the back of the restaurant.

Once we cooled down we realized we were too full to eat a meal, so we ordered desserts.  That’s when the fun started for me.  The waitress we had at the front of the restaurant was very attentive and very tuned in to food allergies.  She checked all of the ingredients for everything I ordered and was able to tell me what was in all of the dishes, what I could and could not eat.  Really extraordinary.

The waitress in the back of the restaurant was not so tuned in nor did she seem to understand the seriousness of food allergies.  To her credit, each time I asked her to tell me what was in a dish she did go back to check, which was great, but she would come back and tell me only that ‘it was safe for me to eat’.   Although I explained that and why I needed to know what all of the ingredients were,  each time she would come back with the same answer, ‘it’s safe for you to eat’.  She assured me that there was no gluten, soy, nuts or peanuts in the  gluten-free pumpkin spice cake and that is what I ordered.

It arrived looking like a thick, moist slice of a pumpkin tea bread with a frosting on it.  When I asked her what was in the frosting she seemed annoyed, said she did not know and she would check after she took care of other tables.  Ok, so now I was getting frustrated.  I decided to start eating the cake and avoid the frosting until she returned.  After a couple of bites the owner came by and told me he wasn’t sure what was in the cake, but he was pretty sure there were walnuts.  Ok, then . . . so I had to literally spit out the cake in my mouth and decide what to do . . . b/c if there were walnuts in it I was in trouble.  He said he would check and I told him that I had specifically asked for, and not received, the ingredients.  A few minutes later he came back with the recipe and showed it to me.  Phew . . . no walnuts thank goodness!  But he did not check on the frosting and had to go back yet again.  It turns out that it was fine and I could finish the piece of cake, which, by the way, was delicious.

So overall it was a  good experience.  The food and drinks are really good.  The waitress in the front really “got it” and the owner (Jeff) was helpful although he did not know the ingredients.  The waitress in the back did not get it.  She was ultimately right about the food, but she was annoyed at having to deal with my questions, and frankly I don’t have the patience or the comfort to deal with this type of server.

Would I go back?  Yes, absolutely, and next time I will sit in the front section but not by the window.