Food Bloggers in NYC Meetup at Murray's Cheese

 

As I've mentioned a few times, I'm a member of the New York City Celiac Disease Meetup Group.  I've met some really nice people this way and most importantly gotten a lot of good information about Celiac Disease.

A few weeks ago my friend Mallory over at total noms and co-owner of Mile End Bakery decided she wanted to start a meetup for Food Bloggers in NYC.  As a fellow food blogger and friend, I signed right up.  Within just a few days there were over 80 members!

The first meetup was Tuesday night at Murray's Cheese Bar in the West Village.  I'd never been and I'm really not sure why.  Who doesn't like cheese?!  The menu has many different cheeses broken up into: fresh, soft-ripened, washed rind, semi-firm and firm, and blue. They also have several kinds of meats.  If you aren't in the mood for just cheese and meat standing on their own, they also have sandwiches, fondue, mac & cheese, enchiladas, and salads.

I opted to have two cheeses and a meat.  With all the different cheeses on the menu I wasn't sure what to get and let the cheesemonger (yes, that's a real word) choose for me.  I ended up with a Rainbeau Ride Meridian fresh cheese, Ewephoria Gouda semi-firm, and Creminelli Wild Boar Salami.  It was excellent and I really liked the cute slate it was served on.  I would definitely go back.  My picture turned out terribly but Mallory captured a photo of someone else's that was very nice:

Not only was the food good, but so was the company.  I met a few nice people with food blogs and some that are interested in starting food blogs.  I look forward to our future events.  If you have a food blog and live in NYC, come join us!

Check out Mallory's review on Total Noms and my new blogger friend Rechelle's on Romio.

Joan's GF Great Bakes

I've been hearing about Joan's for a long time now but hadn't had the chance to try her products until recently.  Not only was I able to finally give her products a try, but I was able to meet Joan in person at Whole Foods a few weeks ago.  I was there for a book signing, but there were also a lot of gluten free vendors around the store giving out free samples.  Joan was one of them and Erin, the leader of the NYC Celiac Meetup Group and author of Gluten-Free Fun, told me I had to go try some of Joan's products.  I'm glad I did!

I sampled Joan's Corn Toaster Muffins, English Muffins, and Double Chocolate Muffins.  They were all amazing.  I ended up going home with the Corn Toaster Muffins and Multi Grain English Muffins.  The English muffins make a great addition to breakfast and the Corn Toasters are a nice evening treat.  Next I'd like to try Joan's pizza.

Not only were Joan's products really good, but she was very nice herself!  Overall, a winning combination.  Nice work Joan, and thanks for the great products!

4 Ingredients Gluten-Free Cookbook

I was at Whole Foods this week for a cooking demo and book signing by Kim McCosker of 4 Ingredients.  Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham started their cookbook series 4 Ingredients a little over 4 years ago.  The concept is simple: hundreds of recipes with four or less ingredients.  Recently, Kim and Rachael realized the need for a gluten free version and voila, here it is.

I love the concept of this book.  The recipes are pretty basic, but sometimes that's just what you need to get dinner going.  There are over 400 recipes in the gluten free version including condiments and dips, breakfasts, appetizers, light lunches, sides, mains, desserts, drinks, and recipes for kids.

It was fun to meet Kim at the event.  She was very nice, engaging, and gave lots of tips.  I was able to try her BBQ beef stir-fry, guacamole, chocolate covered marshmallows, and another dessert I don't remember the name of.  I'm looking forward to trying the Chicken Tikka Masala made with just chicken, tikka masala paste, condensed GF tomato sauce, and plain yogurt.

The only question I had in the book was about the ingredient gluten free self rising flour.  Apparently, this is something they have in Australia where Kim is from, but not really in the US.  When I asked her about it, she told me to just add a teaspoon of baking powder to a regular all purpose gluten free flour blend to make it "self rising".  Easy.

I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately and I hope this book is just the jump start I need.

Gluten Free Potluck and Asian Chicken Salad Recipe

I think I've mentioned before that I'm in the New York City Celiac Disease Meetup Group.  If not, I am.  Sunday night we had a pot luck in a nice building on the upper east side hosted by Delight Gluten Free Magazine.  There were lots of nice people and lots of great gluten free food.  Some of the options were fried chicken and biscuits, Mexican lasagna, calzones, various rice dishes, twice baked potatoes, and a plethora of desserts including muffins, cupcakes, cookies, cannoli, a layer cake thing, and coconut balls.  It was all delicious and I accidentally ate too much.

What did I bring you ask?  Since people were asked to RSVP with what they were bringing I noticed the menu was dessert/carb heavy.  There was a severe lack of vegetables so I wanted to bring something healthy but didn't know what until the day before.  Enter again my friend Morgan who mentioned an Asian chicken salad she had made herself.  Perfect.  It was healthy, delicious, and I think other people enjoyed it as well.

Asian Chicken Salad - (I think the recipe is originally from Bobby Flay?)
Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon (GF) soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (whatever that means)
1/2 head red cabbage, chopped
1/2 head green cabbage, chopped
2 carrots, shredded
1/4 lb snow peas, chopped (why is lb the abbreviation for pound?)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped scallions
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts

Directions:
Mix it all together

Ok so it sounds like a lot of work, all that chopping and all, but here's the trick - buy the pre-chopped stuff.  For real.  I bought the cabbage and carrots already chopped/shredded.  All I had to do was mix together the liquid ingredients, cut up the snow peas, cilantro, and scallions, and shred the chicken I bought already rotisseried at the grocery store.  Don't worry so much about how much of all the vegetables to use, just use what you have.  Easy.  And did I mention delicious?