bliss bakery.

Take a seat Sonoma County residents because this is really happening…

Sonoma County’s first gluten free bakery is opening this week in Santa Rosa. For reals. We are so excited we can hardly stand it. notion:creative, our day job you’ve heard us mention, had the pleasure of branding this new business and we can’t believe the day has almost arrived!

The woman behind this very exciting project is Maria Balme, an instructor at Bauman College of Holisitic Nutrition and Culinary Arts and the owner of Persimmon Catering…so she knows what she’s doing in the kitchen.

Bliss Bakery will be serving up delicious gluten free baked goods that include cookies, muffins, cakes and cupcakes AND they will be making paninis on mariposa’s foccacia, plus serving soups, salads, savory tarts…and the list goes on. Can you believe it?! Have we died and gone to heaven?! Many of the goods will be vegan in addition to being gluten free and not only will they offer their own baked goods, they will also carry a number of gluten free products by various vendors. Make sure to stop by and check out their inventory.

Bliss Bakery will open Friday, October 1 at 8am. It’s located at 463 Sebastopol Ave in Santa Rosa’s, South A Arts District. They are open for business Thursday thru Monday from 10am to 4pm. You can contact them at 707.542.6000 or blissbakery6000[at]gmail[dot]com.

Please spread the word and help support this venture. It is a huge deal that we will have this available to us and our support is key to her success. GO EAT!!! To get you started Maria has given us a coupon to share with you all…be sure and tell her who sent ya.

chicken with peppers & hummus.

It was a great weekend here in Sonoma County, which began with a meal at The Farmhouse on Friday night and ended with an exciting Sunday afternoon at the Handcar Regatta, where handmade contraptions raced for bragging rights along the abandoned railroad tracks in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square. There was simply no way to top off the roller-coaster of flavors that entered our mouths – from Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit to a round-the-world cheese course, to gluten-free garbanzo bread with spicy mint chutney. So Sunday supper had to be simple, it had to be fresh, and it had to be fast.

With a fridge full of sweet, cubanelle and Italian peppers from Eastside Farm, the plot of land that Zin Restaurant uses to grow a good chunk of their produce (plus more to spare, hence the peppers in the fridge!), we couldn’t help but be inspired by this simple recipe. The chicken comes out tender and incredibly flavorful, the peppers and onions sweet with little sections of char adding flavor & texture to the party, and the hummus is an earthy underpinning. Where has this recipe been all my life? It definitely fits in among our regular Easy Weeknight recipe rotation.

Chicken with peppers & hummus
adapted from Epicurious.com

1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts and/or thighs, cut into 2 1/2 -inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide strips
1 Italian frying or Cubanelle pepper, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide strips
1 medium red onion, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide strips
1 (8- to 10-ounce) container prepared hummus (we used Trader Joe’s classic hummus)

Preheat broiler. Line a large shallow baking pan with foil.

Stir together oil, salt, cumin, pepper, and oregano in a large bowl, then toss with chicken and vegetables. Arrange in baking pan without crowding and broil 4 to 6 inches from heat, stirring once, until chicken is just cooked through and vegetables are lightly charred, about 8 minutes. Divide hummus among plates and top with chicken and vegetables.

diavola pizzaria.

Diavola Pizzeria in Geyserville, Calif., how we love you. We love you for your house-cured meats, your thoughtful and deeply delicious menu, and now we’re smitten with your house-made gluten-free pizza, which is crackery yet substantial, a perfect underpinning for truly Italian-style toppings. We love that you make the dough in-house. We love that you offer any of your pizzas – ANY of them! – with a gluten-free option. We love that you make us a Sicilian pizza with eggplant & cherry tomatoes & a heavy dose of je ne sai quoi on the fly, even though it’s not on the menu (shhhh, readers, don’t tell!).

Just get a load of these:

Sicilian

Salciccia

Sonja

Might we see a GF dessert next?

advanced searching on epicurious.com.

Frequent readers of this blog are most likely aware of the fact that we like to use epicurious.com as a starting point for our recipes. The recipes we find aren’t always gluten-free (we don’t mind converting them to GF recipes), but did you know that you can tell epicurious to show you only GF recipes? How cool is that?!

If you go to the epicurious.com homepage, click on the “advanced search” link just below “Recipes & Menus” on the far left. You’ll then find yourself at this window:

And at this window you can specify as many dietary restrictions, food preference, meal types, season of meal, etc. as you need! Go ahead. Give it a try. It won’t bite. Promise!

national celiac awareness day.

Since 2006, September 13 has become a celebration of Samuel Gee, who is credited with being the first person to find a link between celiac disease and diet. He once said “if the patient can be cured at all, it must be by means of diet.” Soooo….if ever there were a day to eat as many GF treats as your body desires, today is the day. The Lab is officially declaring it – in addition to National Celiac Awareness Day – GF Amesty Day. Woo!

ian’s party package giveaway!

Haven’t you always wanted somebody to throw you a GF pizza party? Or what about an allergen-free fun fest? C’mon, fess up. We know you’re into it, if only to make those kids of yours happy. So get this: Ian’s Natural Foods is giving away allergen-free Party Packages that serve 14 guests. That means you’ll get — delivered to your doorstep — a box of plates, utensils & napkins, invitations for each winner to send to guests, plus fun Andy the Otter stickers, tattoos and prizes. Could it get any easier to throw yourself — and a few of your kids’ friends — that pizza party you’ve always wanted?

The Lab has been an Ian’s fan since we saw them at the Natural Foods Expo earlier this year. Fun packaging + fun booth + pretty convincing gluten-free foods = a screaming success for the GF kids market. And we recently tried one of Ian’s Natural Foods’ new products, the French Bread Pizza pictured above. These were a quick fix in the oven (with just a couple of extra minutes under the broiler to help crisp up the pepperoni) and offered a fun contrast of textures, what with the crunchy-on-the-outside but dense & chewy-on-the-inside thing they had going on. There’s just enough tangy tomato sauce to hint of that old-school style pizzaria. I may be a bona fide grown-up, but the kid in me totally loves these.

Want to try to get your own? Enter this giveaway by 1) register with Ian’s Natural Foods™ SuperFit Kid Program; and 2) leave a pithy comment on this blog post. Winners will receive one of these awesome party packages:

Gluten Free Pizza Party
Featuring the new Wheat Free Gluten Free Pepperoni French Bread Pizza & Wheat Free Gluten Free Wafer Bites

Allergen Free Fun Fest
Featuring wheat Free Gluten Free Chicken Tenders & the ever-popular Alphatots

Ian’s Natural Foods is worth checking out for all the kid-friendly products they’ve created, and while you’re surfing the site, be sure to check out the contest page where you’ll find the official contest rules.

Go ahead & enter. We dare you.