Cafe Flora Review

Jason here. Last week we had some family up for the week. This was a great opportunity to go out and eat at some fun restaurants. The second place we went to was, Cafe Flora. 

This restaurant caters to vegetarians, vegans, and the gluten intolerant. Everything on the menu is clearly marked as vegetarian, vegan, or gluten free. We still haven’t found too many restaurants that clearly mark on their menu, what is gluten free and what is not so this was a breath of fresh air.

The atmosphere was very nice. For some reason the paintings actually stood out in my head, because they were brightly colored, with high contrasting colors. It was quiet, which lent itself very nicely for just getting to talk with friends and family. 

Our waiter was very friendly and always made sure to check if anything I asked for which wasn’t on the menu was gluten free. 

With that said, I ordered one of the soups of the day. Embarrassingly I forget what it was called, and I could not find a list on their menu. When I first ordered it, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. The problem for me is soups are fairly sizable single item meals. That means if you don’t like what you get, you’re kind of stuck. This makes a risky meal choice for me, when compared to a dish which has 3-4 items and if I don’t like one I can just eat the others. This time I definitely made the right choice. The soup was really delicious. It was creamy, almost cheesy, with a hint of a garlic. If you’ve read my other reviews, you may have got a hint that I tend to enjoy cheesy items.

We happened to go during their happy hour, which meant some appetizers were discounted. I wasn’t sure if the soup would be enough, and as already mentioned I was worried I wouldn’t like it very much. So I opted to order the quesadilla verda to come as a side with my soup. It was a pretty standard cheese quesadilla, not that there is anything wrong with that. It did have flavor as I enjoyed it, but nothing I wouldn’t expect from a cheese quesadilla.

Kayleigh here. I ended up splitting a salad and a pizza with my aunt, since neither of us could decide on any single item, either! For starters, the French Green Lentil and Beet Salad was a beautifully fresh dish, full of bright flavors and not overly filling. The naturally sweet beets and soft, creamy goat cheese in particular created a lovely contrast that made me wish there was more of them on my plate. The seasonal pizza (did I mention that they change around several items on the menu to better fit the weather outside?) was a great example of fresh, flavorful vegetables showing their dominance on a dish, rather than the usual heavy layer of cheese and sauces. I cannot speak for the gluten free crust, but the thin and crispy style of the whole-wheat crust seemed like it would translate over just fine without anything seeming missing.

Overall I totally recommend you check out this restaurant. This is especially true if you are looking for a nice classy looking restaurant where you can hear yourself when talking to your date.

The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread Cookbook Review

Kayleigh here. Seems like it's about time for another cookbook review: this time, The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, by Bette Hagman. If you are anything like us, then you have one tried and true bread recipe, and you find yourself using it over and over again, since you do not want to go through a string of failures again finding out a new recipe. Clearly, the writer of this cookbook was cut from a different cloth, since she has made the effort to test and compile hundreds of different recipes for all sorts of bread varieties, from hearty, distinctive Rye and Sourdough recipes to inspiring and rut-breaking Irish Soda Bread and Chocolate Cherry Loaves. If you have the hankering for the vast array of varieties a gluten eater has at their disposal, then boy is this a book for you!

Hagman starts you right off with a Q+A session, covering quite many common issues with gluten free baking, from bread machine quirks to water-to-flour ratios and how to combat differences in brand behaviors. And as if this was not useful enough, she follows it up with quite a comprehensive list of flours, covering how they taste, what they are best used in, and even what other flours pair well with them! No longer does the sea of GF flours seem so daunting, with this list as your guide!

Another interesting quirk to this cookbook is that nearly every recipe has multiple versions for different sized loaves. Built as a guide for the oven baker as well as the bread machine user, each yeast bread contains instructions for both, noting the differences in cook times and behaviors quite thoroughly. I think it is fabulous, since it opens me up to baking at a friend’s house that may not have the same fancy kitchen setup as we do. It also makes recipe swapping easier, for the same reason!
Out of all the recipes we've dog-eared in this cookbook, our favorite so far is the cinnamon swirl bread. We added a cup of raisins to the cinnamon ribbons in the loaf, and baked a beautiful, fragrant loaf of bread worthy of toasting, spreading with Nutella or butter, and enjoying in your pajamas on a cold winter morning. In fact, this is the first gluten-free bread we've been able successfully make french toast with, as most other attempts have yielded crumbly, wet piles of disappointment. Not this cinnamon bread- it held up to the battering, gained a lovely crust and moist interior, and stayed in one piece when taken from pan to plate- fabulous!

Jason here. This cinnamon bread was absolutely delicious. Kayleigh has been the one who has persevered and made bread after bread, trying to find recipes which are enjoyable. Each time I feel the bread gets slightly better. What started as dry, dense, and bland, as slowly become flavorful, light, and fluffy. I know for sure that the various bread making books which we have picked up, or had gifted to us, have done wonders. I for one really enjoy the desert breads like the cinnamon bread we made from Hagman’s book.

Unfortunately, we cannot link to a blog or website for the author, as she has since passed away, but she does have several more cookbooks available for purchase, covering everything from comfort foods and desserts to more healthy dishes and baking tips- all lovingly researched and written long before gluten-free lifestyles entered the public spotlight. We cannot speak for the other books yet, but we highly doubt you can go wrong with Hagman's creative culinary concoctions!

Tamarind Tree Restaurant Review

Jason here. Last week we had some family up for the week. This was a great opportunity to go out and eat at some fun restaurants. The first place we decided to go is Tamarind Tree, the sister restaurant to Long which you may remember from our previous review.

The restaurant is situated in the international district in Seattle, and a little hard to find parking for. It does have a parking lot, but be warned it fills up fast.

The restaurant itself has a very nice atmosphere, but one that is a little hard to describe. We were seated outside, but under enclosed canopy. It has torchlights and heat lamps to provide warmth. I found it to still be a little cold, which unfortunately also led to my food getting cold faster than usual.

This time I got lucky and could order the Kumquat Crush drink. It was much less sour then I was expecting. The taste was more dominated by the kumquat rind than anything else. If you have never eaten a kumquat, the inside is very sour and sweet, but the rind is almost sugary with the same texture as an orange rind.

I ordered the same thing as I did at Long, which was the Co Ngu crispy shrimp. The shrimp was just as delicious as before. The salad it came with I still didn’t enjoy but I expected that.

Once again we got stuck, with no clue how to actually eat our salads. The problem is they are full leafs of basil and lettuce, there is some light dressing, and all you have are chopsticks. I loved the looks of confusion and deep contemplation as each person attempted to discern how to not look foolish while eating their salad. I just know someone somewhere must have been looking at us and thinking, “What are those fools doing?”

The crispy fried sweet potato, was less than crispy. Last time it was finely made almost like deep fried noodles, and very crunch. This time is like soggy French fries. A little disappointing.

Luckily the shrimp, and house sauce was still very much delicious. The house sauce has a sweet and salty taste to it. It is very watery so it is hard to get much on any particular bite, but it is so full of flavor it only takes a bit.

Kayleigh here. After visiting Long, I was excited to see much of the same menu, and eagerly ordered the Tamarind Tree Crepe off their Specials section. What I received did exactly match the menu description, but it looked and tasted…rushed. The crepe was crispy on the outside, but soft and soggy on the inside, as if it had been cooked too quickly at too high a heat. The house sauce on the side was excellent, and the shrimp inside were cooked perfectly, but the dish overall was unfortunately a bit lacking compared to our Long experience. Since we have only gone once to each location, I cannot definitively say Long is the better choice, but it will be the one we will return to next time.

As a closing note, we later looked up what the side greens were for. Apparently, we were to wrap our food up in them, then dip it all in the sauce to eat. Well, mark us for double fools, then!

Christmas Cookies for Two Recipe

Kayleigh here. Yes, I know the holidays have come and gone, but I am sure most of you are still wrapped in the warm blanket of good will and kindness that the season brings every year. Along with that fuzzy feeling, I'm sure you're still craving the tastes and scents of all that delicious holiday food that countered the cold, blustery weather so well. So, what to do when you do not want to roast an entire ham, or wait weeks for that fruitcake to soak? Well, why not take the quicker route, and bake some Christmas cookies?

Really, these cookies are quite lovely any time of the year, but I have some strong sentimental feelings from baking dozens of them towards the beginning of December, and riding out that sugary tide all the way into the start of the new year. But if you are like Jason and I are, and prefer a little variety from week to week, then maybe that thought of piles of cookies does not sound all that appealing. Why not reduce the recipe, and just whip a couple up when you get that craving?

The recipe below makes two each of Snowball cookies and Christmas Wreath cookies, since the base for each is the same. Really, you could alter this recipe pretty easily to just make one or the other- just double the extra ingredients for that cookie, and omit what is only needed for the other. But if you are like me, then these two go together like peanut butter and nutella, and I could not dream of having one without the other!

Christmas Cookies- Snowball and Christmas Wreath

Makes two of each cookie (4 total)

Ingredients:
For both:
2 TB butter, softened
1/4 Cup White Rice Flour
1/4 Cup Corn Starch
1 Cup Ice Cold Water (you will not use all of this)

For the Snowballs:
1 ts Granulated White Sugar
1-2 drops Almond Extract
2 TB crushed up Walnuts (very small pieces)
1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

For the Christmas Wreaths:
1 TB Brown Sugar
1-2 drops Vanilla Extract
1/2 Egg, beaten
2 heaping TB of Crushed Walnuts
2 TB shredded Coconut
2 heaping TB jelly or preserves of your choice (I usually use Raspberry or Strawberry)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350. Combined butter and flour in a bowl, until it forms a crumbly dough. Add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until the mixture JUST forms a ball. You want these cookies to hold their shape when baked, so do not make it too wet.

2) Divide dough into two bowls now. In the first, add the Sugar and Almond Extract, then mix in the walnuts. Form the dough into two balls, then place onto cookie sheet.
3)  In the second bowl, mix in Brown Sugar and Vanilla Extract. Roll the dough into two balls, then squish slightly to make a fat disk.

4) Beat the egg, then roll the two disks until coated. Sprinkle on Walnuts and Shredded Coconut, then place on cookie sheet. Using your thumbs, make an indent in the center of each one for the jelly to go in later.

5) Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies are just starting to brown. Take the snowball cookies (the round ones) immediately off the sheet and roll them in powdered sugar. The sugar sticks better when they are hot, but be careful!
6) After the cookies have mostly cooled ( about 10 minutes), place a heaping tablespoon of jam into the center of each wreath cookie. Plate them up all pretty, and serve!

Jason here. These cookies definitely remind me of Christmas. They have that super crumbly texture that I associate with Christmas cookies. Unfortunately I do not like coconut, so I made mine without. Make sure you have a nice glass of milk to wash the cookies down with. I found my mouth getting dry after just a cookie, and then they are no fun. For that Christmas cookie taste, definitely try out these cookies, especially if you are just looking for a small batch cookie recipe.

Jak's Grill Review

Jason here. This review is a little special for me, and starts off with a bit of a story. It’s long, so If you just want to read the review you can skip down a little ways.

Almost one year ago today, I was in my last year of college still looking for a job. I was lucky enough to land an interview out in Seattle for what is one of the best companies for my field. Unfortunately for me, this was actually just after I started getting sick from eating gluten.  So with my stomach upset, and super nervous I traveled to the other side of the country to interview for my dream job.

The round of interviews went well, but not perfect. There are always the little things that you think back on afterwards wondering where you could have done better. The company had been generous, and given me a food stipend and told to go enjoy the local cuisine. They even recommended a nice steak restaurant downtown.

My flight was late at night the next day, so I had some time to go and explore Seattle. I went down town and walked around Pike Place market, and even went to the aquarium. After walking around for a few hours, I finally got hungry and decide a steak did sound good. I checked my phone and looked up the nearest steak restaurant.

So I walked a few blocks, only to find out my first pick had an extremely long wait.  No problem I thought, so I looked up another steak place started walking there. Now at this point, I am pretty dead set on steak. I have no idea what compelled me to, but I ended up walking well over an hour to get to the next restaurant only to find out it was closed. I have really worked up an appetite now, and it is pretty cold out that day. Keep in mind, I had to check out of my hotel, so I am also lugging around my duffel bag filled with my travel accessories.

I look up one last place on my phone, and find a restaurant called Jak’s Grill. I call a taxi this time, and finally arrive about 3:00PM. I see the sign for Jak’s Grill and am immensely excited. I walk up to the door, and find out that they don’t open until 4:00PM. I’m cold, hungry, and my stomach hurts at this point. At least it’s a nice street with a bunch of shops. I decide I can wait the hour and just go walking around.

4:00PM rolls around, and they open up right on time. I seem to be there first customer. I get seated in a little alcove around the corner, and my waiter introduces himself. It’s a slow day while I’m there so he chats with me some about where I’m from, and travelling. He guessed I was travelling to or from somewhere, since I was carrying around my luggage.

I order the Steak Oscar off their specials menu (as an aside, I couldn’t find their special menu online when I looked, but I may have just missed it). It was delicious. I remember it being one of the best meals I had ever had. I finally get my check and pay.

Then an incredible moment happened. The waiter turned and said, “See you when you get home”. For the last hour or so, I had been sitting there most alone, just contemplating what my life would be like I got the job and moved out to Seattle. With that simple utterance, I realized I could make this place my home, and that it would be everything I ever wanted. And for some reason, I simply stopped worrying about how my interview went. It was a moment of clarity for me that I will never forget. Just a few days later, I got the call that I did get the job, and vowed right then and there that I would one day return to Jak’s Grill.

So on my birthday this year, Kayleigh and decided there wouldn’t be a better time than now for me to go back.

REVIEW STARTS HERE

We went back, and sure enough I ordered the exact same thing, the Steak Oscar off their specials menu. All of their entrees come with a salad, seasonal veggies, bread, and some form of potato.

I let me waiter know I was gluten intolerant, and asked if she knew my choice was gluten free. She said she was almost certain it was, but went back checked. Sure enough it was. The service is absolutely great here.

The steak Oscar is a steak with crab on top, topped again with béarnaise sauce. Béarnaise sauce, is a combination of eggs, tarragon shallots, and butter. This is all served on top of some asparagus. For my side, I got the garlic mashed potatoes.

I ordered the steak medium, and it came out as perfect as I remembered it. I had worried that maybe I was just remembering it being so good, because I was so hungry at the time. It is was nice and pink on the inside, and still had some of the absolutely delicious fat left on the sides. The crab and sauce, adds a delicious creamy taste to the whole thing. The salad, and sides were also very good. I cheated a bit, and swapped my asparagus for Kayeigh’s broccoli and carrots. Broccoli is my favorite vegetable, and I just have never personally enjoyed asparagus very much.

The atmosphere is also one I enjoy. It has a sort of old fashioned high class feel to the place. Smooth jazz playing, a little dark, all the booths feel secluded and personal.

Kayleigh here. I would like to counter Jason, and say his asparagus were perfectly cooked, so there. I ordered the salmon for myself, but it was one of the first times where I did not feel restricted when ordering a non-steak option at a steak restaurant. Every one of their seafood entrees are tantalizing, inspired dishes that can hardly be called afterthought options, as is how I usually find it. Settling on the salmon was actually difficult, but the taste of well cooked, seasoned, and buttered fish was well worth it.  However, I will say I’ll definitely be going down the line and trying a different entrée each time I go! Plus, we were told that at least the creme brulee is safe to order, so we will have to try and save some room for dessert next time!

In conclusion, if you ever get a chance to check out this restaurant, I absolutely recommend it. This place will always mean something extra to me, and I hope you take a little something special away from the experience as well.

Thick and Savory Beef Stew recipe

Kayleigh here. Before I launch into the recipe, let me give you a little backstory on it. With the two of us currently living on the opposite coast from friends and family, we knew that Thanksgiving this year was going to be a little different. After all, have you ever seen a Thanksgiving spread that feeds only a couple people? In need of a workaround, we came up with the idea of each making a dish that the other one wouldn't want- Potroast with mashed potatoes for him, and a coconut curry with scallops for me. Of course, we still had leftovers for days, but it helped make the day seem different than the family get-togethers of years past.

Once dinner was over, and cleanup had ended, we took the roasted bones and drippings from the potroast pan and made a fragrant beef stock over the next few hours (by the way, simplest prep ever- you barely need to check on it!). With no real use in mind for it, I quizzed Jason on what he would be in the mood for.

Now, if you are a gluten-less shopper, you may have noticed a rather annoying trend in the soup aisle. Buying plain beef, chicken, or vegetable stock is almost always completely safe, but as soon as they throw in some more ingredients and make a heat-and-eat soup out of it, flour suddenly gets tossed into the mix! Since Jason's college quick meals of Campbells Chunky soups have thus been bumped off our menu, the thought came to us- why not give it a shot and make our own!

Thick and Savory Beef Stew

Ingredients:
4 cups Beef Stock (homemade, or 2 cans worth)
2 TBS GF Soy Sauce (or Tamari sauce)
1 ts Worchestershire sauce
1/2 ts Ground Black Pepper
1/4 ts Garlic Powder
1 ts Dried Oregano
1 ts Garlic Chili sauce (optional, but adds an interesting note)
1 lb Stew Beef (doesn't need to be a fancy cut for this)
1 Large Red Onion
Olive Oil (for pan)
3 Potatoes
3 Large Carrots (or 4 smaller ones)
1/4 Cup Cornstarch

Directions:

1) First off, dice up the beef and all the vegetables so everything is roughly the same size. Well, bite sized.
2) In a saucepan, drizzle some olive oil and bring to medium/high heat.  Add the beef, and cook until browned. I recommend throwing some salt and pepper into the mix, since the beef will not be added until the end, so this will help impart some more flavor.
3) Once the beef is cooked and removed from the pan, throw the onions in and cook until caramelized. Set these aside with the other vegetables.
4) In a large pot, dump the stock along with all the spices/sauces. Heat up to medium heat, add the vegetables, and turn it down to low heat.
5) Let the soup simmer for about 2 hours. By then, the potatoes and carrots will be very soft, and the broth will have broadened it's flavor. If it tastes lacking, feel free to reseason!
6) In another bowl, add the cornstarch, and spoon in about a half cup of broth from the pot. Stir well, then dump the thickened broth back into the soup. You may have to add a second dose of stock to the bowl to get all the cornstarch clumps out- don't just throw them in the soup!
7) Stir the soup well, until all the broth is uniformly thickened.
8) Add the beef in, and serve!

Now, with that amount of cornstarch, the soup thickens up a LOT. We were trying to go for a very thick, canned soup imitation, but feel free to add less or no cornstarch if that is not your thing. It won't affect how it tastes!

Jason here. Canned soups have always been one of the foods I kept around the house. They made fairly healthy meals, kept almost forever, and were super quick to make. Ever since having to go gluten free, I have missed the taste of those canned soups. I grew up with them, and there were a staple for me. I suspect many people have their own homemade soup recipes, but every time someone offers me a homemade soup, it has both the taste and texture of being watered down. So this recipe was designed to pack as much flavor into a thick soup as possible, and it certainly delivers. It really did remind me of the canned soups I used to enjoy. So if you find yourself wanting a soup with a little more kick, go ahead and try this out for yourself and tell us what you think.

Arnies Restaurant Review

Jason here. A little while back it was Kayleigh’s birthday, and we wanted to celebrate by going out to a nice restaurant for dinner. You see, ever since we moved to the King County area, Kayleigh has been dying to go out to a nice seafood restaurant and enjoy a well cooked fish. I on the other hand, don’t really enjoy fish. I enjoy shellfish, just not fish. With this in mind, Kayleigh chose a place down on the bay called Arnies.

The atmosphere of Arnies is perfect for a date. For starters, it overlooks the bay for what I suspect would be a very nice view during the day. We went at night, so unfortunately it was too dark outside to really see anything past the dock. Inside, it has a high class dining atmosphere. The type of restaurant you wear a nice suit to.

The main part of my meal consisted of garlic mashed potatoes, and a steak. The steak came slightly pink on the inside, which is exactly how I like it. The highlight of my meal though, wasn’t the steak. It was actually the mashed potatoes. You see, right after it was brought out, the waiter came over with a cup of bacon bits and told me how delicious they were, and would I like some added to my mashed potatoes, and how much. After discussing a bit, she added a few heaping spoonful’s.  Usually when you get bacon bits added, it is only a few pieces which act more of an accent. With that amount I really tasted bacon with each bite, and I loved it.

To drink I ordered their, “Dragon Berry Bite” which consists of Bacardi Dragon Berry Rum, lemonade and cranberry juice. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I tend not to like drinks which taste overly of alcohol, so this fit my tastes perfect, very fruity and sweet, with just a hint of rum.

Kayleigh here. I admit, the entrée I selected (fried prawns with cocktail sauce) was decidedly not gluten-free, so I cannot speak on the food aspect as much. I can say the wait staff was very attentive, and we saw the manager making rounds several times over the course of our dinner, so we were never concerned about questions going unanswered, or courtesies slipping through the cracks. In fact, the waitress was able to cite gluten risks off the top of her head for nearly every dish, so we did not even have to wait in between questions and answers! This service, coupled with the amazing layout of the room (literally every table in the restaurant has a waterfront view), made it a place I will very likely pick again for my birthday next year!

All in all, Arnies is not a restaurant that caters to a gluten free audience, but it is well aware and equipped to deal with substitutions and cross-contamination prevention. And if you have any questions about what is and is not safe on their menu, do not be afraid to ask!